Thursday, September 15, 2011

At least they can't fight on the way home

JC and HT have been beyond intolerable lately. I'm sure it has something to do with being tired and a new routine, but there is absolutely no excuse for their behaviors lately. They fight. All. The. Time. They fight over everything and nothing, usually at the same time. On Monday I was watching them walk down the hill from school behind JR, literally punching, pinching, and skirmishing as they went along. I explained to both of them that I was not interested in excuses or explanations. Their behavior was dangerous. They couldn't possibly be paying attention to traffic if they are paying that much attention to hurting each other. In addition, it's distracting to JR who IS attempting to pay attention to traffic, and it can even be distracting to drivers going by...all of this adds up to not being a good situation. They were assigned to spend the rest of the day, with the exception of dinner, in their bedrooms. Now, of course there are things to occupy themselves in their bedrooms, but at least they weren't together. That's the ironic part about all of this...they can't stand being apart and always want to be together. Over the course of the last 2-1/2 days they have managed to fight about who got to the bathroom first, who was really standing next to JR at a particular moment, who has the best school principal and so on and so forth. I worked at the school yesterday and told the kids to please walk themselves home as usual. I would be home shortly after they arrived home. JR called me as I was leaving the school to inform me that yet again, there had been physical fighting on the walk home. I spoke to each of them and informed them each that it was bedroom time again. I spoke to each when I got home and reiterated the conversation from Monday, and this time I removed some of the more fun items from the bedroom. In addition, I've explained that since it seems as though they aren't getting enough sleep and therefore can't be pleasant people, their bedtimes are 1/2 hour earlier this week. Today, JR and JC are staying after school to attend a meeting to be on Safety Patrol. I've informed JC that if she can not begin to make better decisions that I will revoke my permission for her to be on Safety Patrol. I told HT that I would meet him after school and we'll walk home together...at least for one afternoon they won't be fighting with each other while they walk!

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