Bart left on Sunday and is coming back. yay! But you know, things are quite settled at our house lately. After recovering from the year of drama brought to us via our oldest daughter's last year before being and adult and eight months of a 21 year old living with us but refusing to obey rules, we have done quite well. I mean we have our blips -- I was cussed out and had my life threatened this morning. I told him to go ahead and get it over with because he has threatened to kill me more than 500 times in the last couple years.... And things have been stolen, etc. But the stress level is way down and it feels good.
I've started a new chore program for the kids that has started well. Tomorrow it officially kicks off -- we practiced this week. It involves an "all or nothing" approach to chores for high schoolers, and rent charged and then paid back by adult kids. If you would like to see specifics I can send you the documents I prepared and presented to them. Nothing special but it explains it better and seems to be working. Previously I paid by the day -- do your chore and get a dollar a day for it, but they weren't doing them consistently. I am now approaching it like a job -- either you do it or you get someone else to trade because it is your responsibility. The beauty of it is that if one of the kids opts out I can immediately hire someone else to do their chore and I won't have to try to make them do it all week. I'm getting way to detailed with this so please just don't read the past paragraph. Ha.
Am working to get the house in shape for the return of Bart today. And have plenty of work to do as well...
2 comments:
It's funny how "quite calm" is relative. Not just anyone can accept being cussed out and have their lives threatened and still call it a good day. Three cheers to adoptive parents!
I'd like to see your chore agreements, please.
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