Switching Roles

Lately we've been having MAJOR attitude problems around here with our 10 1/2 year old, to the point that sometimes I wonder if he's 10 or 2, and yes I have one of those too. It starts off with a simple request, and ends in a full blown temper tantrum, throwing himself on the floor and extreme sighs of exasperation. I've talked to him until I've litteraly turned blue in the face, tried to reason with him, but nothing has seemed to work.

So, I racked my brain for a couple of weeks, and then came to Jeff with my idea, and he helped me execute it. What was my ingenious plan (altough we don't know if it's ingenious yet)? We put Ian in charge of reminding us of our duties, i.e. fixing dinner, laundry, giving Moran a bath, etc. etc. So, last night after F.H.E. and treats, he started his duties reminding us that it was prayer time, and to ease him into my bad attitude about his reminders, I just plopped myself onto the couch, sighed, and said "I don't want to say prayers". He immediatly told me that I wasn't setting a very good example, both Jeff and I grinned at each other, but deep down inside I was doing my infamous Witch cackle (my mom can do it better than me, she was a good teacher). We'll see how this all turns out, hopefully he'll realize how frustrating it can be to deal with bad attitude, and then again, maybe not, we'll see. Stay tuned for next weeks post to see how it all turns out.