Look, I love a good, cozy, rainy day just as much as the next person, but it's a real pain when I actually have things to do. Needless to say, I got very little accomplished today, but I didn't have anything pressing to cross off my "to do" list today, so I didn't worry about it.
My dad called me on Monday and told me his hospital was being featured on "Good Morning, America" on Tuesday. He works at a women's hospital, and a woman had given birth to two sets of twins in the same day...the odds of that happening are, like, 1 in 70 million. So, GMA came to interview th parents and the older brother about their family that went from a family of three to a family of seven practically overnight. Her husband said they still wanted to try for a girl.
She might've looked at him like he was crazy, but can you blame her?
Anyway, my dad called me this morning and told me that my trip to Houston was off. I kind of had a feeling in my gut, even when I made these plans last week, that they would end up being changed. I'm pretty bummed. I haven't seen my dad in about 2 months, and that's a really hard pill to swallow after seeing him every few weeks since he moved to Houston, and almost daily before that.
After N got home from school (sans B since he's at his dad's this week), I ran a couple of errands, and then came home to time him on his iPod. Yes, it has come to that. I have put a stop to video gaming in my house. I'm tired of it. I don't like how it's the only thing they want to do, and I hate that they get so obsessed with it that they freak out when something goes wrong. The Xbox hasn't been on since Sunday, and it's been blessedly quiet. N has used his iPod sparingly, as in he hadn't used it since Sunday until this afternoon...when I gave him 45 minutes.
That proved to be his downfall, because when I tucked him into bed tonight, he sat up almost immediately and (in a voice that was almost staged) said, "Oh crap! I forgot to do my assignment for my literature circle tomorrow." Enter the dragon mom who is furious because he had no problem reading for fun, playing his iPod, or watching "The Regular Show" (don't get me started...that show is 500 degrees of stupid)...but he couldn't do his homework?
The claws came out, and the punishments flowed freely from my mouth. He'll be going to bed an hour early for a week. He'll be without his iPod for three days. The Xbox is still off the table, so I'm not worried about that. But most importantly, if he has any late assignments or his grades drop, he's going to lose some baseball privileges.
This mom doesn't play. And yes, it does sound harsh...but I have to do something that will make an impact. He doesn't really care about the other stuff. He'll gripe and complain I'm the meanest mom on the planet, and I might even get my third (or subsequent) "I hate you!" from him...but baseball? That's hitting him where it counts.
So, once again, I'm playing the bad guy. It seems it's all I ever do, and I'm really hoping that someday both boys will realize that I wasn't "mean" to them because I enjoyed it, but because I was trying to help them grow into men who understand responsibility, respect, and how to treat people instead of how to excel at being a douchebag.
'Cause let's face it...there are far too many of those in this world and not nearly enough of the good guys.
They have to be good guys...they just have to.
Aubs
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