A Parenting Success

OK. I still haven't caught up yet, but the worst is behind me. The school carnival is over, Chase's birthday is over, and the trip to NC is over (although that last one was fun...) I have firmly let the PTA know I will NOT be back next year.

I'm still not a Travel Agent, but I am doing research.

On the up side, I performed what I think was a stellar little bit o' parenting in NC. We flew up there to see our friends the Reeds. We spent 1 day hanging out at their house in Denver, NC. We spend the 2nd day tubing at Hawksnest in Seven Devils, NC. The third day we head up to Sugar Mountain NC to do some skiing.

Now, we all know that travel is not cheap. And skiing is not cheap either. So when we pay money to go all the way up there and then put our kids in ski school, I call that a moderate investment. What you don't want to happen is to have the Ski School instructor call 1 hour into the kid's lesson and say "Chase is done and ready to leave." And yet it happened.

I sent Bart back up the lift, and I headed down to deal with "the boy." He was in the office pouting and complaining about how hard it is, and how he wants to go home.

First, I explained to him - very patiently - how it takes practice, and everyone falls, yadda yadda yadda. Then it comes to light that what he's really upset about is that Karlin was doing it better than he was. So I took some time to point out all of the things he does better than she does. I almost had him, and then he went back into pout mode.

So then I got tough. I gave him 2 choices. He could stay with his group at ski school, learn to ski, and get hot chocolate. OR...he could sit at a picnic table for the rest of the day. What I said exactly was: "There's no babysitting here. No game room. No TV. No Video games. No playground. If you quit, you will sit at this picnic table for the REST OF THE DAY." He then said he wanted to go home (and this was at about 11 am). I said "No Chase - no one's going home until at least 4:30 today. If you quit you will sit at this picnic table for the rest of the day. Do you understand that?"

Then he changed tactics on me and said "I want some hot chocolate." So I said "No - only kids in ski school get hot chocolate. Do you want to stay with your group, have hot chocolate, and then try to ski again? Or do you want to have some water and sit at this picnic table for the rest of the day?"

I am happy to say he chose ski school, and ended up doing really well. I was proud of myself for not losing my temper (because I was watching a lot of money potentially going down the drain, and I knew that if he sat out Bart and I would have to take turns sitting with him. That meant less ski time for us.) I am also glad that I gave him a choice, but made it very clear how things were going to be.

By the end of the day, he and his sister were both riding the beginner ski lift, and riding down the green trails. They even say they want to go skiing again next winter.

Well done all around! :)