Not following the rules......

I'm breaking my own rule tonight. I've been trying to be in bed by 11pm. It's now 11:05 pm. I will pay for it in the morning and I will fight off a nap during the day, I'm sure. (Another new rule: NO NAPPING!)

I'm not the only one who has broken rules and had to suffer the consequences. Corey found out what it's like too. The school held a "school wide celebration" on Friday and he was not able to participate. He had 2 pink slips for bad behavior in the past few weeks. Two slips means no celebration.

I'll be the first to tell anyone that my kids are not angels. They don't always follow the rules no matter how blue in the face I get. I've been stressing to them from day 1, that bad behavior on the school bus or at school will not be tolerated. I was getting warnings from the bus driver about the boys and I've tried to correct that by not allowing them to ride the bus home in the afternoon. I think the almost hour long ride makes my boys antsy. We live 3 minutes from the school, yet my boys are the 2nd to last to get off of the bus. It's working out fine now, even though I'm not all that excited about having to go and get them every day.

One of Corey's pink slips was from a bad decision he'd made on the bus. He spit on a boy because the boy said he could run faster. Ugh. I questioned Corey about this and his response was, "It was just a little bit". UGH!! I explained that it didn't matter how much, it mattered that he did it. He was not thinking before acting!

The other pink slip was because of his behavior in the boys' bathroom. He was caught swinging on the stall door. Another case of not thinking before he acted. He knew it was wrong.

I understand school rules. I know that it is for the safety of the children and I know that proper behavior is expected. I am not against Corey's pink slips, although, it just about killed me to escort my crying son to the car on Friday afternoon. Everyone looked at him as he sobbed. I wanted to sob with him, even though I wanted him to learn his lesson too. It's so hard to see your child hurting so bad.

The school wide celebration was "game day". I volunteered to help with Bingo in the cafeteria. While some grades were playing Bingo, others were in classrooms playing the board games they'd brought to school. I think the salt in Corey's wound was that on Thursday (day before celebration) he wrote a letter to "Mom and Dad" asking if he could bring a board game to school. It was signed, "Love, Corey", and in his best handwriting. I'm pretty sure that the teacher had all of the students write a letter, but I don't think she'd realized that Corey was not participating in the celebration. It just wasn't like Corey to be in so much trouble and if either of the boys would be in trouble, we'd think it would be Collin. (He can be so devilish!)

So, here it is, now 11:24 pm. I'm still awake, but I know that I won't be as hurt as Corey was on Friday. Thankfully, there is one more school wide celebration this year. I'm sure Corey WILL be participating and hopefully, I'll be awake enough to volunteer my help.

Goodnight.