I have finally decided to take myself to get some counseling/therapy. My anxiety has been off the scale for the past two weeks. I think I can attribute some of it to pre-pms. Also some of it to my cousin's illness.
I did finally made a house cleaning schedule and had a talk with my children. We split all the house chores so that everyone is doing something major, rather than relying on "Mom" just because mom is at home....at home doing daycare, as if that means, doing nothing all day long.
For my daughter, who is pretty responsible, it was a piece of cake. For the boys, it was alot of moaning and groaning. The boys have a clause add to their chores. That is, if they fail to complete their chores on a weekly bases, they will receive consequences of being stripped of ALL electronics and no outings with their friends until chores are met. This really put a bad taste in their mouths. My oldest boy took to it right away and began doing his.
My youngest boy, well, he is a whole nother story. A few days after making the schedule, I received an email from his teacher showing me all of his class assignments and grades. Not good at all! This meant automatice restriction and stripping of the room of all the electronics.
To make things worse, while driving him to school this morning, he was being sassy with his mouth. Yes, I smacked him once in the face as I was driving. Oh, did he stop? He listened for a minute. Then, he became sassy again, so I smacked him again.
Yes, this sounds horrible, but he has been getting out of hand. I have tried everything to be patient and give him opportunities to comply. Nothing has worked. It's like the more patient I am, the more he takes advantage. I do realize, him being the youngest of my four kids, he is spoiled and not as well trained as his siblings, but to disrespect me is going too far.
I noticed he was a bit more humble and obedient when I picked him up from school. Hmmmm.....I just suppose sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I just don't like going borderline abusive.
