The holiday hustle is in full swing, and it's clear in the way things are running at home. The boys are wild and crazy, more so than they normally are. Tempers are short and quick to flare. There are messes to be cleaned, and prep work to be done.
That being said, I thought I was making a point to the boys last night about their behavior. Growing up, we had our stockings out the whole month of December, and on occasion, there would be something inside in the morning. This same tradition has been passed on to my boys. The are eager to check if there is something special waiting for them.
I do not like to reward bad behavior, and there has been more than I care to have around here lately. Out shopping, I saw a little bag of coal. It wasn't real coal, just chocolate wrapped to look like coal. Last night, after a rough morning and picking them up from school, I slipped a few into each of their stockings and waited. After bath time, the older one found his, and was excited to get chocolate in his stocking.
"But it's coal," I tried to reason with him. No dice.
Then again this morning, he hoped he would have something in his stocking tonight. Even some chocolate coal.
"You get coal when you've been bad." I had to remind him.
"But it was chocolate, so maybe we were kind of good and kind of bad," was his reply.
The chocolate coal (and I hope the chocolate tasted bad) didn't do the trick, so tonight when the fight erupted shortly after getting home, I tried Plan B.
What is Plan B? The most feared move a parent can do. I took some of their presents from under the tree. It was a warning I gave them when I first put them under the tree. If they touched them or tried to open any present, they would go back to the store. The boys have been good about staying away from the gifts, the large packages with their names are too exciting to lose.
The gifts will eventually go back. After all, this is the time of year for giving, and the gifts I took are clothes. But they don't need to know that.
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