I don't know if Bill will ever go for individual counseling, but he did show up for our family counseling session today, and that's a huge step for him. Our therapist said we need to work more on being united, and not worrying about whether it's his way or my way. She also told him never to threaten to throw anyone out of the house for any reason. She also reiterated that he did not have the chance to raise his older boys through adolescence, and that everything Y is doing is absolutely normal. She even told him that the normal trust relationship that would have built up between father and a child raised from birth is not yet here for either of them.
It didn't help that Y was still annoyed we wouldn't buy him the $250 cell phone he absolutely had to have this weekend. We tried to talk him into a $100 - 150 phone, but that was a no go. One of his friends has a Motorola Krave, and that's all that he wants. So, he has to work on raising that extra $100 before he can have it. He is now $40 towards that goal. We finally settled on an allowance for certain chores done each week ($20/wk). If Y does the chores without being told/griping about it - he gets $25/wk. So far, as you can tell, he only got the $20/wk bit! He hasn't learned about no griping, yet. As one of our friends says, he has a hard head. A trip to Kroger to buy some food and candy has helped some, too. He just wants to know that he has a place here and that he has some control over something.
Natalie
TX
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