I'm a Mean Mommy Today

Sigh...it's only 8:30 and I already want to go back to bed and start over today.

Last night we had a hard time getting Keithen to finish his homework. He still had most of his spelling to do at 9:30 p.m. - which is an hour past his bedtime. I put him to bed and told him he'd need to get up in the morning and get ready for school and finish it. He had been reminded of what the consequences of not turning it in entail. (Pulling a card and missing recess in detention to finish it.) We've been through this once before, earlier in the year. http://the5dollars.blogspot.com/2005/08/homework.html I really thought it wouldn't be a problem again. WRONG!

He wallowed around in bed for 30 minutes this morning after the alarm. I kept trying to get him up. Finally, his feet were hanging over the side of the bunk and I just pulled him down. I had to help him get dressed. He did sit down and write a few more sentences at his desk. He came up front to ask a question and I turned the girls TV show off so he could concentrate to finish.

Finally, it was time for the bus and he'd still had no breakfast and the work still wasn't done. I took the papers from him as he protested and put them into his binder and put that in his backpack. I had to practically drag a crying boy outside to wait for the bus. Ruby started crying too because she had no shoes or coat and wanted to go with us. There was no way I could carry her out as I had to hold onto Keithen's arm so he would stay with me at the end of the driveway. I kept telling him he needed to calm down or everyone on the bus would see him upset and crying. He wouldn't even let me give him a kissing hand to take to school with him. (Which I'm sure he really needed today.) He broke down on the steps of the bus and cried more, with the bus driver having to wait for him to get on and sit down so she could drive.

Not only was I still in my pajamas with no chance of getting him to school on time if I took him, but I felt strongly about not letting him off the hook this time. When this happened in August I took him to school and talked to the teacher. As I said before, he had detention during recesss that day to complete the work. So he knew what was going to happen if he didn't finish it this time around. It was so hard to make him get on that bus and go face the consequences of his actions. I wanted to cry too. I hope he is able to pull himself together before the bus gets there. I called Mrs. Hall and left her a message that we had a difficult morning and he may be upset when he arrives at school. I'll be going in later today to volunteer at the bookfair. I hope I get to touch base with him for a minute while I'm there and make sure he is doing OK.

(Ruby also thinks I'm a mean mommy today because I won't let her eat chocolate ice cream at 8:30 in the morning.)