Thursday, July 28, 2011

the Saga ends?

I bought a membership to John Rosemond's website a while back and decided to submit a question recently, which he answered.  My question was what to do about Hunter who has been sneaking downstairs at night to play on his game cube, and I mentioned his other behavior issues.  He will sometimes fall asleep at lunch or dinner because he is so sleepy, and sleep 6 or more hours in the day time.  Here is his answer:

A: the obvious solution is to remove the video game from the home. they have no place in a healthy family environment anyway. you need to put a permanent end to this problem so that you can concentrate on the more pressing behavior issues. by the way, video games, says the research, are associated with low motivation, misbehavior, aggressiveness, underachievement, and short attention span. you are describing an addict, and the research clearly says they are addictive. get the heroin out of the house! today! now! do what i say! john

We did it, only we decided to be kinda sneaky like ol' Hunter.  We showed him this answer and told him it would have to go.  He was a little weepy, but said he at least wanted to sell it since he and Kyler had purchased it with their own funds.  I explained that it really wasn't worth much of anything after their treatment of it, not to mention how old it is...  Being busy with a newborn and all the other normal craziness around here, it took me a couple of days to get to it, and to ultimately decide exactly what to do.  I got out a hammer and had Dean go at it, containing it all in a box.  I put the box back where the game cube had been and left it there for Hunter to find.  

The next day he didn't say anything about it until later in the day, as he and Kyler marveled about it and accused me of being the culprit.  I denied it.  We actually had a spare unit, that I think I picked up for $7, and they got it out and hid it under the spare bed in Tristan's room.  I had them retrieve it and they begged me not to destroy it.  Once Dean was home Hunter really got excited, accusing us of doing it and carrying on, trying to choke back the tears.  We continued to deny it, just as he denies every misdeed of his life, even as we catch him with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.  He admitted that he had come downstairs in the night to play and found it destroyed.  It warmed my soul to picture him slinking back to bed unsatisfied.  I had removed the cord from the TV as well, and locked the computer so he couldn't do either of those things during the night.  

There hasn't been a word about it today.  I forgot to take a picture of the destroyed unit before it went out with the trash.  I've hidden the spare one; maybe it will make an appearance in a year or two.  He's password protected out of the Wii, so he can exercise or whatever when he's supervised, but that's it.  I hope the saga is over.  

8 comments:

Laura McBride said...

Congratulations girl!

The Merrills said...

Funny story! Way to take charge, as the parents should!

OUR HOUSE said...

Does this mean no games when he's at my house, because I will be happy to support you in this endeavor.

Living Lavallee said...

Ruth, I could go either way on that. I'd be perfectly happy if you didn't allow it, 'cause then that's all they would do, I'm sure. That's usually all they want to do here, so I have to coerce them to find anything else to do. But, if it gets them out of your hair, then I don't mind.

The Olson Family said...

Girl you rock! lol

Kristal said...

Way to go! I hope it helps some the issues you're facing with him. I think I need to look into this site for my issues with Regan. That girl can make my blood boil!

our big bus said...

Wow John Rosemond tells it how it is. I will have to check his site out. Way to go. I hope this is the end to the sneakiness.

Unknown said...

Yeah!! Parents always win in the end :-) Very proud of you!