The First Grounding

Shane was grounded from TV Sunday. He watched two hours of it while I was at the doctor's Saturday. Then, when it was turned off, he cried and whined. 

"Shane," I said, "you should say 'Thank you' after you get to watch a lot of TV." 

He refused. 

I gave him another chance and appended "If you can't be thankful for the TV you do get, you won't get any TV tomorrow. It's your choice: Will you say 'Thank you' for the episodes?" 

Well, he made his choice. I even got it on video (on the third offer) to make sure he didn't try and play the 'I forgot' card.

I know I can't make him feel grateful. I can make it clear that he should be. Manners count. At the minimum Shane needs to learn to do a cost-benefit-analysis when offered an ultimatum (Two words to assuage feelings and avoid trouble OR refuse and go without TV until Monday. Hmmm....).

It would have been nice to take a TV break Sunday, but we stayed busy. There was no moratorium on fun, only TV.

For example, we fished for O's on the tic-tac-toe board. It was Shane's idea. I wanted to play.

Then we went on a walk and found a rock. Shane keeps his rock collection in a purple pumpkin on the front porch.

This rock was special, though. Every time Shane threw it in the yard and lost it, the rock would re-appear in the pumpkin (remember the magic oven?).

Shane got so excited he would throw the rock and charge the porch.

I told him there was a 'cooldown timer' and it took the rock a while to wander home (perhaps through a tunnel?). I also said, "Shane, you have to give Daddy time to look for the rock if it's going to reappear!" Blatantly obvious if you ask me, but Shane was lost in the magic of the moment. We threw a bunch of tennis balls and hunted for them in the grass, too.

Monday morning, the first words Shane asked me: "Daddy, can I watch two episodes now?"