First off, the wife is anti-screen time and pretty much anti-gaming. Give her a surely expression or a syllable of sass, and the culprit is too much screen time. The only cure is cold turkey. (What an odd expression. I love cold turkey.)
It has taken a global pandemic and stay-at-home schooling to break her down. But this semester it became apparent that the only cannon we had left was bribery of the highest order—a Nintendo Switch.
My oldest son cares not an iota about grades…or school. If he’s not receiving the external motivators, attaboys, and kudos from those around him, he’s not engaged. So…sitting in front of a Chromebook at home? Not his jam. Taking instruction from his parents? Also not his jam.
The first quarter comes and goes before we discover he hasn’t even attempted half of his assignments. His daily regimen up to that point had consisted of whining, dodging, and lying. (Which, by the way, I believe to be important life skills, but within the appropriate context.) Heck, he completed several of the assignments but refused to submit them for credit. (What sort of twisted psychology leads to this?)
Minute-by-minute nagging only resulted in higher blood pressure for the wife, and a stressed-out family bunny. What other option remained? One tumultuous morning, I strode down the steps from my attic office and raised my hands to push back the chaotic waters from the Brown family household. We were to create parental-binding contracts between ourselves and each of our sons.
It was determined that these contracts would reward each son upon the fulfillment of the calendar school year. The required behavior from each son was to make their best effort to complete the requests of their teachers. The reward…a Nintendo Switch.
The method of enforcement would be daily and weekly performance reviews. Blowing smoke up a parent’s arse would result in extra credit assignments. Grades were immaterial. These were the terms.
These have been the results. My youngest son wasn’t having any problems with fourth grade. He still isn’t. He’s the type of kid who (still) wants to please his teachers and his parents. Bless his little pea-picking heart.
My oldest son has gone from solid ‘F’s across the board to a ‘B’ average. Has he internalized any of it? Not even close. He’d still revert back to ‘F’s in a heartbeat if we let him. But, if nothing else, hopefully he has learned that life consists of negotiations…and that doing undesirable tasks in the moment can lead to desired goals down the road. Only time will tell.
His next lesson? Desire is the root of suffering. Now that he has a Switch…we can take it away from him. ‘B’s here we come.
At the Desk This Week
I’m still plinking away at episode four of the third season of The Green Ones. Not only am I slowly getting to the finish line, the quality is ratcheting up with each writing session. I’m still knocking off the rust from not consistently writing over the last several years. I’m really starting to love the results. I’m weaving in depth and subtlety at this point. The final episode of this season should be much easier. I’m not going to get them done by the end of the year like I had hoped, but they will be worth reading when I get them finally wrapped up!
If You Wish to Start Reading The Green Ones…
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