He is grounded. SS14 got a C on a test in his best subject in school recently. I know. I know. A "C" is not bad, it's average. But this is his BEST subject, one he has always excelled at. When I looked over the test and the answers he gave, I could tell two things. 1. He was being lazy and wasn't trying to answer the questions at all. Just throw down whatever he thought would work. And 2. If I were his teacher, I would have failed him for penmanship alone.

Yes, He is autistic. Yes, he has problems with his fine motor skills. Yes, we are working with him. BUT, I know he can do a HELL of a lot better than what I saw on that test.

So, we are back to nightly writing practice.

I suggested him reading an article and writing a summary paragraph for me. DH knew that would get me two sentences. "I read an article about cats. It was good." And a fight would start. So he suggested for penmanship practice we have SS14 COPY paragraphs of an article.

Cool. I picked one I wrote (former journalist--back when it was fun--until I started covering more and more politics ugh) and set it out for him.

OMG. The fit he threw. Yelling and screaming how I was making him do the most unreasonable thing in the world.

We totally ignored the fit as we made dinner. The only thing we did was warn him that his tactics were going to get him grounded. He kept up. He sat there either yelling, glowering, or pouting for a half hour. Then starting scribbling 5 minutes before dinner.

At dinner, time was up. Everything was put away and we sat down to eat.

He immediately started his normal routine of "I am so mad at myself. I shouldn't have acted like that." Which is total bullshit. Neither DH or I said a thing about it. We wouldn't even discuss the writing assignment.

After dinner and dishes were cleared, DH went to SS14's room and took the paddles to his Xbox (SS14's most prized possession) and brought them to me.

SS14 started crying. "How long? How long am I grounded? How Long?" DH looked at him and said, one day for every time you blamed Pecan for that assignment; when I am the one who gave it to you...so that is three days and a week for the fit. So 8 days.

Forget the wine. I want vodka.