I Finally Deescalated a Meltdown With My 10yr Old
Whoa, buddy, it’s been quite a weekend. Lots of excitement with family in town led to our son getting a little more freedom than he should’ve had, and a lot of things that should’ve been done weren’t, while things that he knows should not be done were.
Some examples:
threw away his entire lunch knowing we do not waste food like this, leaving the game room a mess after being reminded multiple times to clean up, “forgetting” all his morning chores leading to the dogs not being fed for 2 days! There are more, but all were pretty minor infractions that dad and I kept letting slide because, as I said, fun weekend.
It all came to a head this morning when I got up to find him playing video games on the laptop in his bed. The laptop is not allowed in his room for starters, and secondly, he has things to do before games are played at all. Teeth must be brushed, dogs let out and fed, breakfast eaten, we don’t just hide in bed, and play games at 7 am while neglecting all our responsibilities.
This led to him losing game privileges for the day. To a 10yr old boy, that is the end of the world.
Normally this would lead to a total meltdown that would ruin the majority of the day, but I was determined not to go down that route. I did not react with any emotion at all and…
