You Know You are Losing Them When...
My oldest son is eleven. He's pretty smart and he's mature for his age... at least about some things. He has a few traits that get on my nerves however. One of them is that he tends to rush through the house making rampaging noises. There's not an apparent reason for it. He'll just be moving along and get to the stairwell and suddenly it occurs to him to rumble up the stairs making a sound like a rhinoceros in heat. It reminds me of the play (or movie if you like) "Arsenic and Old Lace" - where the brother would charge up the stairs like Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan Hill.
When my daughter was eleven she didn't have this "kinetic Tourette syndrome" response to whatever was going on in her body. Of course she was (and is at 14) a walking emotional volcano capable of erupting at any moment - but I digress. Upon talking to our friends my wife and I were gratified to learn that our son is not unique among 11 year old boys. Apparently it's par for course.
Still, I'm periodically tasked with sitting him down to "connect" with him about his behavior and how to control it. Today as he sat still (with the exception of one leg that was sort of jumping around like a marionette) as I spelled out what was expected of him.
Me: "Did you know I could hear your voice throughout the house?"
Him: "Uh...."
Me: "I mean... it's mostly just noise... nonsense."
Him: "er...mmmmm..."
Me: "Is there a reason you have to raise your voice above everything else?"
Him: unintelligible sounds of agreement...
Me: "I mean you run around the house like a Kamikaze Pilot shouting Bonzai! I can barely hear myself think."
Him: silence and a little glaze in his eyes
Me: "I understand you are full of energy and don't realize how loud you are, but the cat is scared to come out of from underneath the bed. You have to get a grip on this behavior buddy. I need you to be more aware of yourself and .... and.... Aaron.... Aaron... are you listening to me?"
Him: "Uh.. yeah Dad... yeah... I'm listening."
Me: "Ok... what did I say?"
Him: "You said I had to control myself and not be a kamikaze Pirate."
I figured that was close enough. At least it wasn't as bad as when I waxed eloquent about how he sounded like a broken record. It took me ten minutes to figure out he had no idea what I was talking about because he'd never seen a turntable (ha). Ah well - I'll get back at him someday when I have grandchildren.
5 Comments
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You know, I still have the bouncing leg thing and I'm 40. At least I stopped tieing helium filled balloons to the cat's tail. And I still get on my Dad's nerves.
Some things never change. -
Tell him to go play outside. I think my mom said that to me 100,000 times. -
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Yeah - we tell him that and he spends about 80% of the time outside during the summer - but we have to let him in occasionally or the neighbors will talk (ha). -
Explain to him that we are sharing the environment, that you and others are being aware of other's right to be un molested by one's own behaviours, that you are explaining these things to him because you are excersising self management and you expect him to folow your good example...
Or, of course we could skip that extra effort on your part and follow his example and have a 'who's the biggest Ahole'.... in which case guess who's the bigger pain in the -er... you're an old guy. Treat him as an equal/
good luck, worked for me... :)
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