Lessons Learned

My boys can be extremely forgetful. Whenever I visit their school to help out I make a stop at the lost and found to check for any lost possessions. I'm pretty much guaranteed to find at least one article of clothing per visit. The constant reminders don't seem to work for my precious duo so I have had to take creative measures to get them to be mindful of their property.

The first situation that comes to mind was from last school year. Every day when the boys come home from school I go through their school folders to see if there is anything that pertains to me. Quite often when I would open up Clayton's folder, his homework would still be there unchecked because he forgot to turn it in when he arrived in class. After this happened numerous times I became pretty annoyed. Every night I would come home from work, they'd be fast asleep and I would take the time to check their homework and make notes on a separate paper of what needed to be fixed. Upon waking in the morning and getting through breakfast we would then tackle making corrections to the homework. I was tired of putting in the time with Clayton just to have him forget to turn it in! One afternoon I had finally had it. Reminding him as he walked out the door was not working, so I told him the next time he forgot to turn in his homework I was going to put a big dot on his forehead. This way his friends would ask him what the dot was for on his head and he would have to admit his forgetfulness. No, I do not consider this public humiliation, more like "tough love". Later that week he came home from school and I discovered his unchecked homework in his folder. I didn't say a thing. The following morning as he was about to walk out the door for school I called him back into the house. I told him he had something on his face and to let me check what it was. His mistake here was that he trusted me... in one swift movement I dabbed his forehead with a red permanent marker. I'll admit I felt a little guilty and cruel when the waterworks came on and he didn't want to go to school after examining his "dot". However, it worked! For the rest of the school year he no longer forgot to turn in his homework.

The most recent situation came this last week when I went to make the Clayton's lunch. We couldn't find his lunch bag, but since Koby was having hot lunch we borrowed his lunch bag. Parting words before heading for the bus included a reminder about bringing home his lunch bag from school. The next morning when I went to make both the boys their lunch Clayton confessed that he forgot Koby's lunch bag at school and never looked for his. Instead of putting the lunches in a plastic grocery bag I decided it was once again time to show a little "tough love". I found an old gift bag to put Koby's lunch in but for Clayton I decided he needed a little extra reminder of caring for his possessions. So for my eldest I decided a Victoria's Secret bag was appropriate. He protested, but I told him once he got to school he could switch it over to his lunch bag. He came home from school proudly holding Koby's lunch bag but complaining he didn't know what happened to his bag. Funny thing is, it was under the couch the whole time, I found it that night when I went to vacuum. Oops. But lesson learned, right? The VS bag sits on top of the fridge awaiting the next time one of the boys forgets to bring their lunch bag home. Time will tell on this one, but it was fun coming up with creative way of teaching them responsibility. Again, not public humiliation, it's called tough love.