Jude is having a crash course this week in "life lessons" and that "actions have consequences."
Last Saturday while I was making my very own pizza from scratch (it was delicious...I think my oven should get hotter for better pizza but alas it won't next time I'll try the grill!):
Jude and Shiloh let themselves into mommy and daddy's bathroom, opened a locked drawer and helped themselves to the hair cutting scissors which resulted in this:
A hole in his hair.
Holes in the bed mattress.
Jude also cut up a pair of pj's. Oh scissors how you beckon to my child. He is now learning some hopefully invaluable life lessons.
Back up a couple of weeks: Jude was chewing gum (that his uncle Jeremy gave him) and got it in his hair.
I managed to get the gum out and keep his hair!
Chad gave both boys a haircut in which mommy kept saying, "please don't cut too much." "I love their hair how it is." Chad did an excellent job or trimming and keeping it a length not too short.
Jude apparently could not resist giving himself a hair cut - hence the hole in the middle of his hair. It was bad. Very bad. We could think of no way to salvage his hair. I was sad. Very sad. I almost cried. I know it is just hair and it will grow back but I really liked it.
Jude was informed he would be having a buzz cut:
Turns out he really liked his hair too. In fact he liked it so much he cried when we were finished cutting it. Then when he went out side and the neighbors told him how handsome he was and how much they liked his hair cut (they did not know he had cut it himself and was now suffering a consequence) he burst into tears again and ran away. Poor guy.
Jude is getting used to his hair cut. Wearing his dragon shirt helps.
A short buzz is not the only consequence Jude is having to deal with. We decided that Jude needs to learn that it is not ok to destroy things (cutting up the mattress and the pi's). We are trying to teach him that we need to take care of the things that God has given us and that the things we have cost money and that to earn money it takes hard work. So:
Jude will buy new pj's. I made a jar for him to put his money in until he has saved enough to buy new pj's. We took all of the money out of his piggy bank and put it in the jar. To earn money he had Shiloh have been doing chores.
Shiloh cleaning the trim.
Washing baseboard.
Searching for weeds.
I have no idea why he felt a helmet was necessary.
Look at all those weeds.
Jude is at the halfway mark of the money needed for pj's. So we have more chores in store. More baseboards and toilets!
I am tired of chores because I have to make sure that he does a good job. This process is teaching me a lesson too. It is hard work to train up your children. It would have been so much easier to send Jude to his room for a time out or to spank him but we didn't think he would learn very much from those avenues of discipline. See part of discipline is thinking ahead to what kind of person we want our children to grow up to be. I so desire my children to be follower's of Jesus. I want them to do the things that please him. Part of that is understanding that the world is His and everything we have is a gift from him. We need to take care of the things he has given us. So we will continue doing chores until he has enough to pay for new pj's. And hopefully he learns something from this.
