Mr Charming and Mr Snarky

Mr Charming came grinning to his bedroom door Tuesday night at 11:45pm when I came home from work. I knew he was awake, his light was on when I came down the driveway. Busted! The babysitter laughed when I told her if she heard screaming from upstairs in a few minutes it was going to be Y when I ripped him a new butthole. He knows when bedtime is (10pm) and he knows the rules apply whether I am there or not. He just figured he could get one over on her last night. My only problem with this babysitter is that I don't think she's forceful enough with him. I don't know if she's afraid of making him angry or what, but we'll have a little talk tonight when I get home. I'm gonna show her how to unplug the main internet connection from the office downstairs. Y does know where that is, but hopefully he will get the message that it's time to sleep!

Y told me that the reason he was still up, and still on his computer was because Monday he did not get to play at all. He has a very short memory - he played on his old computer because the 'new' one had to be stripped back to factory specs AGAIN and have Windows reloaded AGAIN, and that takes about 4 hours. This time it happened because he interrupted a Windows update in progress to play games, and the computer was just way too confused what to do next. (I love my Mac.) I only had three words for him, "Turn it off." He asked for five more minutes. I told him he had taken an extra hour and a half without permission and he surely was not going to get another five minutes. "Turn it off now, or I'll turn it off for you." He kept begging, so I told him one more word and he'd lose computer privileges for the next night. He turned it off. Smart boy.

Wednesday morning was lovely, he refused to go to school because he did not get enough sleep the night before. The nerve of this boy! I gave him two choices:

1. Go to school with your clothes on.

2. Go to school without your clothes on.

When he refused to get up again, I simply pulled on his arm till he realized I was serious, and he got dressed and went to school. The sitter said he was cranky all Wednesday evening, too. She told me he was playing on the old computer in the kitchen while she made dinner and his music was loud, so she asked him to turn it down. Then he played his game on that computer while she was trying to clean up the floors and the gunfire got on her nerves, so she asked him to turn it down again. Y told her that this was his house and he didn't have to! I was still at work when she told me this, and I told her to give him the phone. Y and I then discussed how, yes, this is his house, but the sitter is in charge because I say she is in charge, and he WILL follow the rules whether I'm there or not. If it will help him, I'll take a picture of my "Monster Mama Face" as Y calls it, put it on a stick and the sitter can hold it up to her face any time she has to tell him to do something. Apparently that talk worked, because the sitter told me when I got home that he came downstairs and apologized for being rude to her. Even shook her hand.

Thursday morning was even more lovely. He flat refused to get out of bed, period. Guess he thought he was calling my bluff from the day before? NOT. I had everything ready to go, including a set of clothes in the car. I went up to his room and when he refused to go to school for the third or fourth time, I put my arms under his, locked my arms around his chest and dead-lifted him out of the bed and drug him all the way out of his room before he gave up and got dressed. I might be losing weight, but I'm still bigger than him, and a lot stronger than I look. 155lb dead-weight! Heck, I carried a 65lb dog over a quarter of a mile home after he got bit by a snake!

I told Y in the car on the way to school Thursday that he had lost his computer privileges for the evening. He stays home alone Thursdays, and I get home either at 8pm or 9:30pm. This was one of those late nights. I did find out how to get Y to call ME when he gets home from school (instead of me waiting and then calling him): disable his computer! More specifically, take the power cords to both computers in the house with you to work. OMG!!! What was he gonna do!!! OMG! Mama! I no can play ALL DAY?!!! I told him to eat the dinner I had left for him, walk the dogs and go to sleep. He said he wasn't hungry. Then don't eat, I said.

Long story short, someone was dead to the world when I got home from work. Seems he got over 10 hours of sleep that night. Imagine what you can accomplish when your computer doesn't work? Friday morning he was extremely compliant, if not happy about his situation. After school, Bill came over and talked to him a bit, and when I got home they were outside and Y was riding the tractor and mowing the lawn for the first time this year. Finally a chore he actually wants to do. And, he was even pleasant to me, to boot.

When I asked if he wanted steak for dinner, he said, "No." Then I said, "What if Bill cooks it?" Y said, "If Bill cooks it, okay, because you no good cook." Brat. I've never cooked a bad steak on the grill. I suck at all other kinds of cooking, but I can grill pretty good. Kinda hard to mess that up.

Y even slept for about 12 hours last night till early this afternoon. He said Michael woke him up when he pooped in his room. (I let Mikey out at 5am to do his business, and then put him back in Y's room to sleep; apparently Y did not get up till after 1pm, so after 8 hours it's understandable that a puppy would have to go; Y cleaned it up, too, which is a huge improvement over leaving the evidence for Mama to clean like he usually does - guess he doesn't like that smelly stuff in his room!)

Now, just working on getting him to go to the Rodeo with our group of adoptees tomorrow.

Natalie

TX