Thursday, June 3, 2010

Building Character

Sigh...my heart breaks because of things my children do that end up teaching them a very hard lesson.

Phyllip got a stereo last Christmas. We've told him that he can use it at night several times a week. He sleeps well with music playing. Tyler, on the other hand, HAS to have silence to sleep. And since they share a bedroom, this has been an ongoing struggle with them since Christmas night.

So, they were, once again, arguing over the volume of the stereo last night.

Tyler got out of bed to turn it down. Phyllip blocked him.

Then, Tyler said, "If I touch your stereo, I will give you all of my legos (and believe me, he has A LOT!)."

Phyllip said, "Ok."

Not 10 seconds later, Tyler gets out of bed again and TOUCHES the stereo! Yep, you read right! He now owed his brother ALL of his legos.

Walter and I knew nothing of this deal until this morning.

Tyler desperately tried to get out of the deal. Walter and I talked to him and pulled out all of the details and.......told him he had to be a man of his word and give Phyllip his legos. (Can I just tell you how heartwrenching it was to break Tyler's heart like that????? He sobbed for over an hour. His eyes were swollen half shut.) He did give them to Phyllip.

Walter and I told him he should have thought about what he was saying before he made an agreement like that. In the end, he KNEW that he was the one to be upset with and no one else. I think that's the thing he had the hardest time with; knowing that he couldn't blame anybody else but himself.

Building character in our children - it's hard sometimes. But when they're adults and they have good character, it'll all be worth it!

BTW, Phyllip has been kind enough to give some of the legos back to Tyler - now that's good character!

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