Parenting Peril.... or Pearl

Saturday night Jake was on one. After having an afternoon and all evening with his friends, (sneaking in some girlfriend time he didn't think I knew about), he decided to throw a total tantrum when I asked him to get off the phone with his girlfriend and go to bed. I didn't react sharply with him. I told him to that we should take our conversation into my room and not in front of the kids. We talked for about an hour and a half about girls and proper relationships and all that kind of stuff. We cried a little and prayed a little. Even though he was still very frustrated and upset he managed to fall asleep on my floor and stayed there all night. I woke up at 5 the next morning to get things ready for church. After I got out of the shower I noticed that he had crawled into my bed, (the bed that was empty because Rachel was gone, remember?). I had an "awe schucks isn't he just so precious?" moment. So I let him sleep a little longer.

I continued gathering clothes and ironing and then I started waking kids up. I purposely woke up Jake last, but he didn't move. I came back a few minutes later and jostled him. He pulled the pillow over his head and mumbled, "I'm not going to church today."

"Beg your pardon?"

More directly and defiantly, "I'm NOT going to church today!"

Now, for the most part I'm a pretty even keeled guy. I have a loud voice and I may talk too much or speak out of turn, but I don't really get mad very often...hardly ever but I didn't have it in me to deal with this kind of behavior. I was ticked!

"No, you are wrong. I'm not dealing with this right now I don't have time for this and you better get dressed!"

He laid there motionless. So I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and his belt, picked him up and carried him to his room and tossed him to the ground. I was still ticked so I took my foot and gave him a shove to roll him over. then I stood over him and hollered, "There are two ways to motivate a mule, a carrot and a stick. I tried the carrot last night and now it's the stick. Get dressed right now or I will beat you!"

As I walked out of his room to tend to the other kids I was ashamed of my unrighteous dominion that I exercised against my son, but at the same time I was feeling like I delivered a pearl of wisdom that may become an instant classic and might need to be brought up in my eulogy.

I have since repented for my blow up and sought forgiveness from my son. Kids forgive easy, and I know that we'll both turn out alright one day.

And by the way, he got his church clothes on pretty quickly without any more discussion.