SS7 was in trouble all week and DH didn't punish him. Not. One. Consequence. As a result, DH says that he's leaving SS7 here for the weekend and asked if I could watch him today while he's at school for a few hours. Normally, I'd tell DH to go to hell. Our options were to to send SS7 to DH's parent's house and have him come home worse than he is, or, I could suck it up and stay home. I, reluctantly, agreed.

I had to cancel plans to take BD1 to the library but I didn't want to totally waste the day so I invited my best friend and his kids over to play with BD1. His kids are 2 and 2 months. I let DH know that they were coming over, but, that SS7 would be staying in his room doing homework the whole time. DH asked if he could do extra chores and get to play a little, instead.

DH is concerned that SS7 hates it here. It seems like all we ever do is punish him and we never do anything fun with the family because he's always in trouble.

As a compromise, we made SS7 do extra chores today, made him do extra homework, and I would let him play as long as he followed the rules and didn't get in any trouble. DH told him "if NewMama asks you to do something, you say yes ma'am and do it. No talking back." SS7 agreed and promised he wouldn't do anything to get in trouble.

So.... once my friend arrived, his son and BD1 tore thru the house, laughing, playing, and having a great time. SS7 sat infront of us while we were talking and stared at us. He asked my friend the same questions over and over and over. I asked him to go play and let us talk so SS7 would pick up a toy and continue to stare. He sat and listened to our entire conversation and repeatedly interupted us. When I asked him to go check on his sister or go play somewhere, he'd whine and complain. No "yes ma'am". He wasn't necessarily bad but he wasn't good either.

Once my friend and his kids left, I told SS7 that I didn't appreciate the way he was acting and thhat he didn't say yes ma'am once, like DH told him. SS7 started to pout and whine. I sent him to his room until DH came home. He repeatedly came out and asked to go to the bathroom, get a drink, get some food, anything to get out of his room. I said no.

DH came home and said hello and talked to BD1 and me for a few mintues. He asked why SS7 was in his room. I just told him "same old crap." DH went into SS7's room and asked why he was in trouble. SS7 made up some crap about being in trouble for not playing and said I was just being mean. DH came back out and told me what he said. I, calmly, told him what happened and said he wasn't necessarily bad but he wasn't good either. We brought SS7 out to talk about how he had behaved. DH made SS7 do some extra chores and we both agreed to let it go and not let it ruin the rest of our night.