Tonight I took my son to his Boy Scout meeting. If you saw some of my earlier posts you might of seen one where I can't believe it's time for me to start letting go & let my son gain some independence. Boy Scouts pushes the boys to be independent & my son is going to be in middle school this September.... so it's time right? Guess again.
I told my boy today that tonight's meeting is an important one because they are going to discuss all the plans for this weekend's camping trip, my son's first trip without me.
I told him he needs to focus, pay attention, & not goof off... if he only knew how much of a goofball his dad really is!
Off we go to the meeting. We're not there for 10 minutes when as the Scout Master is talking my son jumps out of his chair to yell something. You could probably see the smoke coming out of my ears.
I got my son's attention & called him over. "Be very careful. You're not behaving & I don't like it." I'm such a tough guy.
So what does my son do? He acts up the whole freaking time. While I couldn't believe my eyes I decided not to do anything. He's on the Scouts clock not mine.
Sure enough one of the Assistant Scout Masters walks over to my son to calm him down. My son practically laughed in this man's face & continued to goof off with this man standing next to him, watching.
As I started to plan my son's funeral in my head, I started to wonder... should I be turning the other cheek & let the Scout's handle this or should I have dragged him out of there, all set to punish him? We had a very long talk afterwards but I wonder if it were enough?
What do you guys think? When do you draw the line? Should I have let the Scouts worry about this or should I have stepped in? Please comment. I'll let you know if my boy survives the weekend.
My policy was, I gave the other authority figure one shot. If they failed to get my son under control I removed him and dealt with him in private. Also,if he misbehaved when I wasn't there, he had a consequence at home as well as whatever consequence he already earned. If you let these things go, your son will get the idea that he only has to behave for you.
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Ah, the "growing up" stages..UGH. When my daughter hit middle school, the rules where simple ( at least for me ) 'You want it, earn it'. So, if she wanted something like that camping trip, she would've had to show the respect to authority, and the behavior that said she was "ready" for a trip without mommy by her side....Once you warned your son about his behavior, and he still didnt listen, that trip wouldve been off the table. The next time, he'd KNOW you mean what you say.
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