Today started out with Gregory being informed he had lost his electronics for 2 weeks. When the 2 weeks is up, each day he will have an opportunity to earn time on his electronic devices – mostly Minecraft, a dragon game the other kids here all play and Wii. This has been an ongoing push and pull with us doing our best to help him balance what he and his friends consider fun, with real life and family time.
For the past few years we’ve discussed what electronics do and why it is important to have balance. One of the examples I used was eating only 1 type of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner – would this be healthy? He understands having a balanced diet – why not liken this to a balanced day. Recently Gregory has become more and more enthralled with his electronic devices – claiming his body is wanting it and he feels he needs it. We remind him it is not his body – he always has a choice. At the same time is ability to listen and follow simple request has drastically declined. So much for the balanced diet!
Yesterday had been a day without. We went into Canas and had lunch. He helped wash the car. He and I played scrabble. The day was full. in the middle of the night (early this morning) Walter got up. After noticing Gregory was not in bed, he found our son in the office playing on his tablet. Whoa!
This morning we had a long talk with him. We are parents who talk and explain. Asking for his take on things so we confirm he understands. We revisited the good voice and the not so good voice and which one he is listening to. Then Walter pulled out the big guns…he told Gregory we were disappointed in him.
This is a phrase Walter and I do not use in our conversation to each other, about each other, unless it is an extreme case. By using this phrase the other person knows instantaneously they have gone too far and an immediate regroup and realignment of our interaction must happen.
We asked Gregory if he understood the word and once we got his take on it, we elaborated on his definition so he clearly was on the same page as us.
The deed was done. Cause and effect went into play. Walter reminded me that this was not a moment to dwell nor savour so lets’ move on. Done. We went to the Ladies of the Lake fund raiser down at Puerto San Luis. I worked the lunch ticket table with another volunteer and Walter was one of the 3 locals sharing their musical talent. Gregory spent his time volunteering to test the games set up, then played in the lake and on the paddle boat with the other kids, oh and don’t forget eating!
He had a shower as soon as we came home and then went down and shared his thoughts with Walter. Walter immediately had him share with me. We then recorded his revelation.
An observation from our little man. Since a good portion of what I have written about this past year includes my interactions with him, I am grateful Gregory gave me a doozer to use on this second last day. He’s learning to observe and make his own summary.
