school's out !

All good things must come to an end. School finished today and what madness the last 2 weeks have been. It is inexplicable to me why two little people can be so wound up, when they appear to have been spending most days watching movies and playing in the playground. Surely they're just plain tired, and want to have a break ? Not a chance. Zack's behaviour has been severely testing me (and his boundaries) for the past fortnight, and Calvin is trying it on too. Zack, Keith and I had a meeting on Sunday night to discuss boundaries, behaviour and consequences as we were resorting to screaming, dragging him to his room (he wouldn't go there himself), and threatening hidings. It is soul-destroying parenting. As such, we agreed on new parameters.
This week alone he has had a hiding before school following a 45 minute tantrum, and Keith took away £2 of his pocket money for disgusting behaviour. He is challenging authority at every turn. It is exhausting. Where's my lovely Zack ? I just don't know :(
I really hope I have the reserves to get through 6 weeks of holidays - thankfully 3 weeks and Mum will be here to divert some of the 'boundary pushing', and they know where they stand with her.

Mister Angry Eyes

We've just had a visit from Clive who has 3 boys. Two of them are older than ours. Useful conversations ensued. Zack has been very hard work the past week - yes, he was off school for 2 days with an upper respiratory infection, but from Wednesday onwards he was much much better and back on the beat. BUT, boy oh boy has been challenging me. Keith was away on business and so he started taking me on, on everything. It was infuriating : "I'm not going to school"... short of dragging him to school I had to just say, "We ARE going to school. NOW!" but it does occur to me that very soon he'll realise that Mummy can't make him go. It hasn't stopped since Keith got back - it's been the same the past two days.
Clive said their middle son has also been through the angry, I'm not doing that, you can't make me phase. Keith and I came to blows yesterday about how to deal with it, and I challenged him to come up with 5 (practical) solutions to the challenges. Everyone seems to agree that we need to stick to our guns, under any and all circumstances. Zack needs boundaries big time right now. (exhausting) I'm hoping the phase will pass soon.
On the other end, Calvin is playing the "Look at me: I'm so good and I don't get into trouble" angle. It makes things hard because he IS doing the right thing - just that being cute and rubbing it in makes life particularly hard for the big-brother and the disciplining.