Just bought my friend Treva's 'long' necklace to wear with my Easter Dress (totally wearing the same Easter dress this year as I wore last year)-
FOCUS STEPH!!
Back to blogging.......about Maturity.........I wonder if the paragraph above shows any sort of maturity? (smile)
My cell phone rang this afternoon just before I was picking up my son Ryan- When I heard the man's voice on the other end of the line I didn't recognize the name he gave- It was not until he went on further and said he was Ryan's teacher that my eyebrows raised a bit-
Oh my Ryno Chase.......REALLY were the thoughts running through my brain??
Ryan had been asked to stay in his seat (he had been out of it earlier in the class)- later in the class he had gotten up to blow his nose and on his way back to his seat had grabbed a girls binder- Joking around with her- The teacher was calling to let me know about Ryan's disobedience....
Oh Ryno......SERIOUSLY SWEETIE!! Does the teacher really need to have to call mommy to make you obey?
Ok so maybe I didn't say the sweetie part but everything else was said-
I assured the teacher the problem would be handled at home- not to worry........He said a big Thank you and the signal went dead-
I'll admit, after getting off the phone I had self doubt......where were we going wrong with our parenting- Was Ryan being defiant and if so, what underlying issue needed to be dealt with- Help me Jesus make a calm rational decision about what the best way to handle this is!
I heard Ryan's side of the story and immediately recognized he was already embarrassed- While the teacher was telling me about Ryan's disobedience he was standing in front of the class talking so the whole class heard the reprimand......I explained to Ryan that he had disobeyed the teacher in front of all the students and the teacher was correcting him in front of them also- I started filtering through the story trying to get to the root of what was going on....
Ryan is 12 almost 13- I remember when Eli was the same age.....I also remember some of the 'stages' we went through with Eli. It's an age where maturity seems to conflict itself- Your age say's you should be farther ahead but emotionally you are starting to deal with a HUGE range of emotions-
After a lengthy discussion in which Ryan called the teacher and apologized for his disobedience he and I settled (ok maybe just I settled on it) on his punishment-
No cell phone or Ipod for a week and he went to bed tonight after dinner at 7:30.....After hearing what his punishment was he said I was treating him like he was a 'bad' kid-
I told him very clearly that in no way did I think he was a bad kid- exactly the opposite I think he is a GREAT kid- I did think that he was being immature in his actions today- I explained what I meant about being immature- How his actions may have been 'all in good fun' and he did not intentionally set out to disobey his teacher......His actions showed a lack of maturity- He is at an age where he's got to think through his behavior and the consequences at a deeper level- not just think 'in the moment' and do what sounds fun in that moment....something even bigger though was at stake- His Christian Witness- I asked Ryan if that teacher would know he (Ryan) was a Christian by the way he acted in class today- Ryan said 'no'-
After talking to Ryan, I was standing at the kitchen sink doing the dishes......thinking about Maturity.......My maturity- The times my mouth has spoken not what I should have said but the what I thought 'in the moment' and how those moments affected my Christian Witness.
Ryno Chase, mommy is on this road to maturity with you- as a 36 year old I've had to call the person that I have offended with my words or actions and apologized too.........Keep going son- pick yourself up and learn from today...You are a blessing and loved so very much!
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