The title of my post is very clever play on words. Read and learn.
I have a 6 1/2 year old boy. Ok, so he's not really mine, but he kind of is... side note: if you ever want to hear the story about the exact moment I realized I was the kid's parent, write me and ask. It's pretty funny and involves blue vomit.
In case you've never spent much time around kids, let me clue you in on a very basic biological truth: Boys and Girls are Different.
Case in point: clothes.
My boy views all his clothing, with the exception of church clothes, as full body armor that is to be tested and used with the express purpose of keeping his skin in tact in extreme play situations. This is great, because he usually wears long pants and long-sleeve t-shirts, thus saving me from running up massive band-aid bills. The problem is that his clothes have an average shelf life of about 4 weeks before they are ripped up. This combined with his excessive growth in the past 3 years makes it hard to keep the boy dressed (he's now a large 7 or small 8!).
So this brings me to the title of my post. I have tried bribing him, threatening him, punishing him, etc., but nothing seems to stem the tide of ripped clothes so I figured it's time to take action. Rather than buy new clothes I am now committed to patching up what he already has.
Patchy may not be thrilled about this (don't know- he hasn't seen his clothes yet), but I figure it's a logical consequence to him destroying everything he wears, right?
Tonight I pulled out my trusty "Brother" sewing machine and patched 3 pairs of his pants- sweats, khakis, and jeans. Not cute or subtle, but sufficiently sewn back together. I'm psyched. I just saved us like $30, and hopefully taught Patches a good lesson in caring for his property. Besides, he'll probably be grown out of everything he owns by June.
Does this make me a mean parent?
2 comments:
This doesn't make you a mean parent, it makes you a mom. I think it's awesome that you have the knowledge and skills to mend his clothes.
And yes, boys and girls are so very different. Whenever we're visiting a home with girls (and no boys) and the mom says that my son is fine playing with whatever he wants in the house, that "he can't hurt anything", I wonder if she knows she's just issued a challenge. I promise, he can find something to break. Almost never intentionally, but it will happen nonetheless.
Patches? We don't need no stinking patches!
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