Would satellite TV be too much? UPDATED with kid's reaction

[cjeanean]

Priceless! All I can say is CONGRATS on the attitude, and trying to nip this is the bud!!! I would TOTALLY do the same thing, and I HAVE to remember this for when my son gets to that age! Don't give in, keep it up! I commend you!

 

[clarkestep]

I think a 25x's writing assignment could be in order.

"I, (her name), realize that I am but 12 years old and I must obey my parents at all times. When I give them my opinion (without being asked) or if I give them any kind of attitude while getting in trouble, I understand that, as parents, they have the responsibility of correcting me so that I don't grow up to be a hoodlem. If they have to correct me, I understand that I may loose the privilege of (make a list of them) and it will be at their disgression as to when I will will get that privilege back. The more I rebel against their authority, the worse it will be for me. I will, therefore, stop acting like a brat and start being obedient. Mom and Dad, I am sorry for my behavior. You are right."


If it is any consolation, almost all of my friends who have 12 year olds are having this same kind of problem. Mine are 11 and 12 and haven't started it yet, though I expect it at any time. Hang in there!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Way to go!

I've been going through similar attitude issues but my daughter is only 8! (Bites nails in anticipation of things to come!!!)

I think what you did is great though - wish more parents would do that sort of thing. How come so many have come to feel like they can't punish their children?

The two best stories I ever heard were these:

A guy I work with had a teenage daughter that kept slamming her bedroom door. He'd told her to stop and she kept doing it whenever she was mad. He told her if she did it one more time he'd take the door off and she wouldn't get it back until she got over her attitude. Well, she pushed it and slammed it again and sure enough, he took it off the hinges. She was MORTIFIED! He said it was immense fun to walk by her room and peek inside and wave.

A woman I know had had her fill of her teenage son skipping school. She told warned him if he did it again she'd be forced to take drastic measures. She got a call from the school again that he skipped and the next day she accompanied him to school and went to every class with him. She sat in the back, waved to him and chatted with his friends. It only took about 3 days of this and he decided skipping school wasn't worth the embarassment of mom in class with him!

 

[HorseFeathers]

I am 12, and we don't have channels on our TV. It just plays DVDs. I am a straight A student.

However, it was MY choice not to have TV channels (though I do miss Animal Planet

). I don't know your daughter, but if I were you I'd let her watch it... but only with the chickens. And they get to pick the channel.

 

[sdshoars]

haha, i think what you did is awesome! and about the guy who took the door off the hinges, i had my uncle do that to me. i was sneaking out my window when i was about 16, and he took the door off the hinges so he could always see if i was in my room or not. i thought he was awful for it, but now i feel like i should take notes from him. i will do the same dang thing to my kids if they sneak out. before he took the door he tried screwing my window shut... i found a screwdriver! i tell my dh everyday i hope we have a boy when the time comes, bc if we have a daughter and she is anything like me, she will be dead and buried in the desert!!!

 

[redhen]

cetawin..you are awesome!!.....

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[teenieborch]

The amazing thing is that when we establish that we are the parents and that we ultimately do make the decisions, the kids seem to visably relax because they understand the rules. Hang in there. My motto is always, if you can calmly negotiate an option that's preferable to you, I'll try to work with it. I think that learning to negotiate is a HUGE life skill.

 

[newchickenfamily]

oh my, I think you handled that perfectly! Personally, I'd keep the TV in the coop till the next progress report comes home!!

 

[dacjohns]

I'm glad I no longer have to go through the trials of raising teenagers.

Just be consistent, if you give in then she has won and you will lose some authority. Then the next thing will be an even bigger challenge.

 

[AngieChick]

You can tell her that there is this mean lady not too far from her that won't even let her kids have a TV in their room. Ever. Those poor kids don't even have cable, just kinda fuzzy OPB. Okay, so they have every gaming console known to man (Dad is a nerd), but they are allowed only 30 minutes a day of any given electronics MAX. And those poor boys are 12 and 14.

We recently went through the progress report thing, both kids had missing assignments in classes. So, we took away whatever was most dear to them. The deal is that every Friday we will check on Pinnacle (you guys may have this in your district), where it lists every assignment for every class. If there is ANYTHING missing, the oldest loses his social life all weekend and the youngest loses all electronics. If they turned things in that aren't showing up as turned in, they had better get their teacher to initial a statement saying it was turned in. I also told them that if it turns out what we came up with isn't enough incentive, we'll up the ante until it is. So, I say she should at least have to do that. Every Friday she could have to get a statement from each teacher that she has all work in, until she has that she has no electronics (as it's obvious that she needs a little time for "self reflection"

). Ya know, you'd think that they'd figure out that the brattier they are the more fun it is to be mean to them

I am concerned for your chickens though, they may turn into little couch crispies. Sitting there, watching soaps and hitting the scratch first thing in the morning. It's just not a road I'm sure I'd be comfortable sending them on.