Was I wrong? Parenting Question

[terrilhb]

I don't think you were mean. Hopefully he learned his lesson. Keep it up.

 

[BusyBlonde]

Nope - not mean. DD used to run all the hot water out, too - until she had to take a cold shower. It only took 1 for her to understand that it was not good and she needed to leave some hot water for the rest of us!

 

[fuzziebutt]

Now tell him that if he does it again, he won't be allowed to take a shower unless it is with his father or his step-father, depending on which is in the house!

 

[PotterWatch]

Sounds like an appropriate response to me.

 

[DuckLover2399]

I'm a kid, and it sounds fair to me! Good punishment

 

[kathyinmo]

Natural, logical consequence. Perfect!

 

[redhen]

Perfect punishment!
I had that problem here too... my kids are better now though..
BUT the next step was, hubby was going to put a water timer on the shower.(i believe its easy to do..).. after so many minutes the water turns cold... (muhahahhaha)
Nothing like a cold shower to wake them up quick...
I'd do the water timer thing... trust me, he WILL learn to take a quick, warm shower very fast. Then it wont be YOU punishing him... he'll have only HIMSELF to blame if he gets a cold shower..

Water tanks are expensive to fill back up and re-heat!

 

[Mattemma]

I would have him take the cold shower since he wasted the hot water. I would run the shower from now on, and treat him like the 2yo he is acting like.Also,no more tv for a while.My water bill is already high.If the kids ran the water like your 10yo I would probably cut their present expense down,and tell them the rest is for the water bill they ran up!!!!

 

[dainerra]

I think "mean" would have been to force him to take cold showers for the next week or so. But saying "you used the hot water and still need to shower"? That's natural cause and effect. you use all the hot water before your shower is finished, you are standing in cold water.

 

[LegginMF12]

I feel much better now after all of these responses. He was really upset about it. He lived his first 8 yrs with a mommy who ahhh....... let's just say is VERY recreational. It took us 2 yrs in court to finally get custody of him . Nobody has ever made him accept responsibility for actions or set boundaries for him. He has zero manners. He missed 48 days of school and had 57 tardies in the 3rd grade, 37 days missed in the 2nd grade. In one year we took him from needing catch up classes to Honor Roll!. I am so proud of him. But he is having a difficult time with chores, responsibilities and just plain being a kid. I worry that we may be to hard on him sometimes but it is for his own good. Poor kid, the first night we sat down to do homework and he was absolutely stunned that we weren't going to give him the answers so he could fill in the blanks. He actually said "Well how am I supposed to know what the answer is unless you tell me?" This is when we started teaching him addition, subtraction and multiplication at home along with his IRT classes.