Responsibility changes addresses

Here I am advising my sister to let her teenagers suffer the consequences of their decisions instead of rescuing them (not bad advice, but keep reading). I discover that it is MUCH harder than I ever thought to actually do that.

I discovered that I was nagging Sam into getting his school work and chores done in a timely manner. I would state consequences that would matter to him and then nag him to keep him from having to suffer those consequences. What a hypocrit! So, today I was determined to follow through. He had not finished his tasks yesterday, so I made up a consequence and put it into place (no TV next day). I locked down the TV so nothing would air (gotta love cable), and went to sleep.

This morning, Sam comes in to ask why the TV won't work (he likes the digital music stations as background). I told him it was consequence of not having his chores done and he can prevent it happening again tomorrow by getting things done today.

All during the day all I asked was "How're you doing?" or other encouragements in a very positive tone. He got it all done (much later than on a nagging day---but so much more peacefully).

Wow, what a change. I also instilled a number of lessons per week in various subjects barometer to make sure we have a complete week even if we have a couple of harried days.

Each week things seem to improve in some manner. With God's help, this will be a successful endeavor. Sam still prefers home school over private school. Yay!!