Learning what motivates kids is the biggest challenge a parent faces. My son is highly intelligent and sensitive but he has to be managed carefully, or he will just shut down. I learned that the hard way. He also has a stubborn streak a mile wide.
He decided a while back that he wanted a Game Cube. Now, this method of playing videogames on the TV is not that popular any more, replaced by Wii and X-Box years ago. However, the controls are easy for him to work with one hand. He used one at a friend's house a few years ago. I am generally anti videogames of all kinds, but I finally broke down and allowed him to get one of these - with his own money.
Last night Michael finished his homework and played it for about 30 minutes. He had picked up some games when we were running errands. I had a hard time getting him to turn the game off, though, and come on to dinner. So I said to him, in a matter-of-fact way, not yelling, that if I notice his grades going down, the Game Cube will disappear until the grades come back up. Michael was NOT happy about that. When Mother came in the room he angrily repeated it, like I was THE MEANEST MOM IN THE WORLD. Mom just laughed.
I have been having to tell Michael about 4-6 times every morning to get out of bed and get in the shower. Mother said quit doing that. She's right. So this morning I went in there, flipped on the light and said "Michael, you need to get up and get a shower. I am not going to tell you again. If you go back to sleep and oversleep, you will have to go to school without a shower and without breakfast. Your choice."
I had just finished my workout and was sweaty, so I took a quick shower. When I got out a few minutes ago, Michael had gotten up, taken out his retainer, and was in the shower. YAY!!
My friend Cindy posted on Facebook a link to an article in the Huffington Post, Kazakh Filmmakers Take Control of National Image. I was so happy to see that. That awful "Borat" film of a few years ago just biased everyone to think Kazakhstan people are stupid and backwards, which is unfair and ridiculous. Mike watched 5 minutes of it in a hotel room with me a few years ago and we agreed to turn it off. Hopefully now there are some positive films that can give him some pride in his heritage. It struck me as I looked at the video preview how much he resembles the Kazakh and Mongol men. He is a good mixture of both Russian and Kazakh.
Saw this and loved it -
