All summer long, we've been working on trust issues with Tio. He has a hard time doing what he's told when it doesn't suit him and it was my hope that he'd see the virtue in cooperation by the time school started so we could trust him to go places on his own. In that, Grammo bought him a very expensive scooter with the promise that he stay put at the local skate park when he goes there every afternoon.
We've had mixed results. He's been cooperating up to a point but still isn't 100% reliable (as if there is such a thing as a little bit honest). But yesterday we learned that "Auntie" (Debbie's sister) has been aiding him in being devious and lying to us. She showed up at the skate park and drove him to a different park in another town and then returned him before we picked him up so no one would be the wiser. She knew he wasn't supposed to leave and he knew he wasn't supposed to leave. Setting aside the fact that she shouldn't be driving him anywhere, what kind of lesson is she trying to teach the kid? That it's okay to deceive your parents as long as they don't find out? That it's okay to make a promise with someone and then renege on it if it isn't convenient?
Way to go, Auntie. With adults giving life lessons like this to the kids, we don't need to worry about them learning bad behavior from each other.
We've had mixed results. He's been cooperating up to a point but still isn't 100% reliable (as if there is such a thing as a little bit honest). But yesterday we learned that "Auntie" (Debbie's sister) has been aiding him in being devious and lying to us. She showed up at the skate park and drove him to a different park in another town and then returned him before we picked him up so no one would be the wiser. She knew he wasn't supposed to leave and he knew he wasn't supposed to leave. Setting aside the fact that she shouldn't be driving him anywhere, what kind of lesson is she trying to teach the kid? That it's okay to deceive your parents as long as they don't find out? That it's okay to make a promise with someone and then renege on it if it isn't convenient?
Way to go, Auntie. With adults giving life lessons like this to the kids, we don't need to worry about them learning bad behavior from each other.