This weekend I am doing respite for two additional teenage boys...both age 13. They will be here Sunday night until about 8pm.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could do so my home remainded intact for the ENTIRE weekend. Prayers were answered when some friends offered us six free tickets to the university baseball game with fireworks following.
We went out for dinner before the game. My boys go out to dinner all of the time. The other two...not so much. Pretty obvious.
We went to the game. We had great seats and my two boys were pretty excited about the game and the atmosphere. The other two boys...not so much.
Boy C is on an electronic monitor because he is a frequent runaway. Boy J standardly makes poor decisions. At the end of the eighth inning I explained what was going to happen after the game. I had each boy tell me in his own words. There didn't seem to be confusion.
Boy C took off running immediately after the fireworks were over. I have friends who tell me I calmly navigate highly stressful situations. This was one of them. I knew he had a GPS tracking device attached to his leg. It wasn't like we wouldn't find him. Might it take a while? Absolutely. So...the other three boys and I walked to the car where I called his tracker. She gave me his address. Since traffic was bad I sent all three other boys to walk the block to where he was. They were instructed to say nothing, but to stay with him until the point where I picked them up.
Once he was in the car we had a discussion that went something like this. "Right now is when you have to make a choice for the weekend. You can spend it doing what I ask and being respectful OR you can spend it at the juvenile center. I honestly don't care, but I need you to make the choice immediately. The words involved in your choice MUST match your actions for the remainder of the weekend."
He muttered something under his breath. I said "If you aren't brave enough to say it to me, keep it to yourself."
He decided he would follow directions.
Prayers for the weekend to improve.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could do so my home remainded intact for the ENTIRE weekend. Prayers were answered when some friends offered us six free tickets to the university baseball game with fireworks following.
We went out for dinner before the game. My boys go out to dinner all of the time. The other two...not so much. Pretty obvious.
We went to the game. We had great seats and my two boys were pretty excited about the game and the atmosphere. The other two boys...not so much.
Boy C is on an electronic monitor because he is a frequent runaway. Boy J standardly makes poor decisions. At the end of the eighth inning I explained what was going to happen after the game. I had each boy tell me in his own words. There didn't seem to be confusion.
Boy C took off running immediately after the fireworks were over. I have friends who tell me I calmly navigate highly stressful situations. This was one of them. I knew he had a GPS tracking device attached to his leg. It wasn't like we wouldn't find him. Might it take a while? Absolutely. So...the other three boys and I walked to the car where I called his tracker. She gave me his address. Since traffic was bad I sent all three other boys to walk the block to where he was. They were instructed to say nothing, but to stay with him until the point where I picked them up.
Once he was in the car we had a discussion that went something like this. "Right now is when you have to make a choice for the weekend. You can spend it doing what I ask and being respectful OR you can spend it at the juvenile center. I honestly don't care, but I need you to make the choice immediately. The words involved in your choice MUST match your actions for the remainder of the weekend."
He muttered something under his breath. I said "If you aren't brave enough to say it to me, keep it to yourself."
He decided he would follow directions.
Prayers for the weekend to improve.
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