Pretty quiet night in our household.    I made Special Pork TEnderoin, garlic mashed potatoes, corn and vanilla pudding for supper.   Josh and Erik washed up the dishes from supper.  We watch “What Woman Think” on TNT and made Icee’s.   Erik has been dying to make ICEE’s.   Tommy had never made them, so he was very excited.  He had a hard time waiting.  But it was worth the wait for a taste of pop!!!  

WisconsinMom to answer your question…How do  I get Erik to do chores as discipline?   We have tried many, many forms of discipline to try to get Erik to stop stealing.  NOTHING as worked.  Grounding ,  time outs,  writing pages of I will not steal and bible verses, no TV, no Computer for extended periods of time.   Recently his bio mom started having him do extra chores when he steals.  I don’t see that this works any better, but I get some extra things done around the house.   Erik is a fairly compliant child.  I tell him he needs to do chores because he took something that didn’t belong to him.   He knows if he grumbles or complains he need to do even more chores.   Today I had him wash dishes, there were very few.   Vacuum the steps and livingroom.  Sweep the kitchen and bathroom and shake out the rugs.  It took him about an hour.    Mind you he really doesn’t do that great with these chores so I still will need to do them again when he leaves.

Then he was free to go play.  I did also ground him from the computer.   I let him keep TV and his scooter since he had done the chores.   To be honest none of this seems to deter him from stealing.  The one thing that I finally told him today ( though I disagree with it) was if he steals one more thing while at our house I will take something of his.    We are sort of at out last ditch efforts since nothing we do works.   I told him I wanted him to feel what it felt like to have someone steal from him.   My hubby had mentioned this before and I always said no as I thought it was wrong for a parent to steal, since it was like saying stealing is ok.    But at this point no common sense punishments work, so why not try the more non common sense.   I can’t figure out how this child thinks for the life of me.  he doesn’t really truly understand others feelings.  He can repeat back to you about their feelings, but he doesn’t seem to understand it.   So if he takes something, he will lose something.  I think that might be concrete enough to deter him.  He hasn’t stolen anything that I am aware of since Friday night.   He also went to bed about 30 minutes early on Friday when I found out he took something. 

One thing you will find out about me I am always honest about my life.  My children aren’t perfect and I don’t paint the picture that they are.   Erik has many problems, but maybe by my being honest about this someone will say. “hey my child used to do this and here is what worked.”  I am out of ideas. 

ROFL…I suppose your sorry you asked now WisconsinMOM….all of my children are pretty compliant and do as I ask with little complaining.   Power struggles are fairly rare in our household.  Though Tommy might be the exception…too young to tell.     But I have all boys.  I do see my SIL having many, many power struggles with her two daughters.   I wonder if it is a boys vs. girls thing???