Fredo Revisited

Well he had a horrible day at school today. The teacher didn't call us, but she wrote on his daily note; he wasn't looking at her, he was touching others instead of doing his work. He was crying all day and didn't do his class work, which in turn resulted in his missing recess, which in turn resulted in him being sent to the office. When he calmed down, he was allowed to return.

When he got home from school, he told me flat-out that he didn't have his paper so yes he lied. I looked in his backpack anyway, and saw it, I guess in case he gets smarter, I should call each day he doesn't bring one home (this does happen occasionally). The whole week he's been terrible at home, but not too badly (not like this), at school. Once he was home, he lied again, telling me that he hadn't cried; his teacher was lying to me. He screamed for a long time, crying whining because I told him he's not watching TV until he brings home an excellent report. He kept trying to make deals--no deals--Not any more.

When he wouldn't stop, I started cleaning his room, removing all his stuff that he had on his bed, and arranged on the floor. I told him he could get his things back when he calms down. I also threw some stuff into his toy box. After he still refused to calm down, I went back for round two, this time with a garbage bag. That really pissed him off but, funny, I still have a box in the closet filled with that shit and he has yet to ask for it back, the garbage bag filled with stuff is back in his room. If he goes a while without asking for the stuff in box, I'm going to go through it and throw most of it away (it's mostly old happy meal toys).

Right now he's playing with playdoh, we read several stories today, and he's all caught up with his homework, and we worked on some flash cards again. I guess I'm doing a good job of keeping him occupied, which is part of his problem with wanting to watch so much TV. Honestly, I know we've made horrible mistake with letting him watch so much TV, it really does rot the brain, but now I don't know how to pull back on the amount of time he spends watching it.

I know I just have to suck it up and do it, endure the tears and get him over the hump.