Jaden is our youngest and has a ton of labels with initials (saving for another post). He has decided to try failing at school. I don't know he is a vey bright child and learning comes natural to him. He is one of those kids who never has homework, and gets A's and B's. In other words, a kid I would often hate when I was in school. I had to work hard to earn a C!
Let me set the scene: It is a week before Christmas and all through the house ... nah, nah, nah. It was a week before Christmas, but mind you, I am threatened all the time - so I usually pay no mind. Jaden is upset that I made him do something he didn't want to do and he yelled at me, well I am going to fail all of my tests. Ok, whatever. Now, most schools use teacher ease or like there of, but our school is a small private gathering and we use accountability sheets. These sheets come home every Monday, so imagine my surprise when I see an accountability sheet with 5 test scores of all failing grades attached to it. I go and ask Jaden and he politely reminds me "Don't you remember, I was going to fail all of my tests last week." WHAT THE ****, and several other expletives came to mind along with wanting to choke him on the spot. So, his punishment was to write all the spelling words he got wrong 10 times each. Now, he failed the test so there were quite a few to write, but please remember these kids are in a private school so the 10 words we had to remember when we went to school is NOTHING compared to the 35 these kids have EACH WEEK.
Two hours go by and he is still crying. Finally, I go into the study and see bits of paper on the floor. I ask to see his spelling test and he hands me the accountability sheet packet and it is out of order, stapled backwards, and some tests are upside down. Perplexed, I asked Jaden what happened - He was like "What do you mean?" I mean I am on medication, but not that much that I wouldn't have noticed the packet like it is currently. I started putting all the pieces (and literally as well) together and was shocked. My child had the balls (yes, I am sorry - this child blew me away with how far he is willing to go to prove his point TWICE already in a span of 2 hours) to rip up the test beyond repair (which he will regret later) and try to pass it off as a lost and wandering test.
Well, we thought we needed to show him how far we would go to prove our point that you don't fail on purpose, nor do you try to LOSE your form of punishment. He had to write the entire spelling list including vocabulary 10 times each. (Which I have a secret stash of spelling lists that he did NOT know I had, just in case he forgot to bring the list home. It takes too long for them to recite 35 to 40 words over the phone). When I produced a copy of the spelling list - he was absolutely beside himself. He tried to piece back the original test to do less work - he ripped this test beyond what my paper shredder can do - I mean it would have taken less time to do that then what he did and I may never had known what happened to it either. I wonder how many other papers have met their end in the shredder - UMMMM, I am going to have to do something about that, anyway...
My kids have this aversion to writing on the right side of the paper and or legibly for this type of punishment. An hour or less later he came to me with this beautiful handwritten paper with more than half of his list (which got him dinner). I mean this paper needs to be in a frame. I told his teacher about the incident and we quietly laughed together. He wants to see this paper - and see if Jaden learned his lesson. I don't think Jaden will rip up a failed test anytime soon and I think (he is getting work over vacation and it is optional, however, due to recent failed grades, it is not optional for Jaden and the completed work will help improve some of his grades) he will not threaten to fail his tests anytime soon. How far is your child willing to go on a threat he or she has said to you??? I would love to hear about your story. Until next time my kids do something disorganized - give it about an hour and they are sleeping now, LOL....
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