'A Bad Parent'

That's what I was told by my 10yr old me on Friday evening.

And why??

We had made the decision to cancel him going on his Cub camp!!

Ok, harsh I can hear you all say and maybe it was, it certainly wasn't an easy decision to carry through as my husband is a parent/helper and was going ( still went actually) to the camp also!!

HARSH.........yes you said it earlier.

However, this 10yr old has the tendency to rule the household. He is dominating, loud and controlling. Recently he has had a lot of things come his way giving him great opportunities and fun times. In the meantime his older brother has been pushed from pillar to post to accommodate all the goings on, none of which have been to his benefit. This time the attitude progressively got worse over the last week and so we had a few words and warned him that if it continued he would not be allowed to go to camp.

Now I'm sure I'm not the only parent who has threatened these things and then at the last minute backed down. So tell me what does that teach children?

I'm sick of constantly not following through with things that I have said just because I don't want my boys to miss out. WELL NOT THIS TIME!

So on Friday we did it. We said he wouldn' be going to camp and we stuck with it. To which my 10yr old replied ' you are a bad parent'.................straight to the heart!!!!

This decision was made extra difficult as he came out of school sporting a gift bag which had a 'Star of the Week' trophy for something he did while on his 3 day school trip!!

This is the problem, he is a real Jackal and Hyde character. When he is behaving he is just a great fun boy to have around and can be so generous and helpful, however when he is not behaving he can make life in the house a real struggle.

All weekend he would not let it show that he had missed going on camp until today when he mentioned the school trip to Chessington,due to take place on Friday. It was at that point he decided to apologise for his behaviour and what he said, probably more to do with him thinking that he might not be able to go on that either!!!!

Then came the chat about the fact that we all do things wrong occasionally ( except me of course, that goes without saying) but it takes a better person to apologise.


So hopefully following through with the decision had some impact. Maybe he will take the warning next time knowing that as parents we can make the harsh decisions. Hopefully we haven't scarred him for life!!!!

SO TELL ME...........AM I A BAD PARENT????