The boys got wild at some point yesterday afternoon until I got tired of hearing my voice telling them to be quiet, so finally I gave a "this is really really your final warning" holler (it often occurs to me how ironic it is that I'm usually yelling, "Stop yelling!" to them. But it's not like you can whisper that).
Our 13yo yelled again, or banged a door, I can't remember exactly what, but it was loud and it was after my really-final warning, so I called him to come see me.
Punishment Consequences were due ("consequences" sound so much more civilized somehow, don't you think?). I started to banish him to his room (always said as, "You are hereby banished to your room!" because they rather like being spoken to as pirates). Anyway, I started to banish him to his room, when it occurred to me that instead I should just enjoy some free child labor. I handed him the project I'd been tackling...
... removing buttons from my man's work shirts. Since my man just got a job-promotion-new-company thing and can no longer use these shirts, I am very excited to finally be able to snag those pretty blue buttons I've been eyeing for the past three years. I mean, I'm finally happy to have a kid snag those buttons. I had things to do like supervising the prisoner while cutting up the pretty blue cotton fabric for a quilt.
What's this?! After his, you know, punishment/consequences thing, don't you think our big fella would have moped or huffed off or at least been jubilant to be freed from Very Hard Labor? Uh, no, he stuck around and had fun with those buttons.
I can't resist a button jar, either.
For a split second, but only for that long, I wondered if I'd totally let him off the hook. I mean, you're not really supposed to enjoy your consequences for yelling... I don't think. Anyway, that thought lasted only a split second, like I said, until I realized how quiet the house was. And it occurred to me that being a little more quiet was the entire point I wanted to make, so it looks like I got what I wanted after all.
So I handed him a bottle of glue and some cardstock. I rather like those button drawings. They'd look good in a frame.
