Emptyness

Every once in awhile my son takes a stance with me and it turns into a huge standoff. I'm not sure where it comes from. Usually he's a great kid. Lately he's been taking a stance more often. I don't know if this pre-puberty, he knows his dads deploying again, his big sisters leaving for college. Maybe it's a combination of all of them. But yesterday we butted heads-BIG TIME! It all basically boiled down to his homework but went from that to another thing and finally ended up with me clearing out his entire room. Leaving only his bed and blanket. His books, toys, t.v, Pokemon collection etc gone. There is a flea market coming up and I'm seriously thinking of setting up a table and having him sale off his belongings. Some other kids are going to appreciate all those toys, right? Now mind you he just had his x-box taken away from him, which he does not get back and now his room completely cleared out. We don't spank, I don't believe in it. I believe in taking away privileges and things that matter to him. This lesson is going to be a tough one for him but it will be one he can grow from. I think we have spoiled him to the point where he expects he gets a new x-box game every payday, gets new books, gets pokemon cards. He doesn't appreciate any of it. When he tells me all the time that he has nothing, he really does have nothing now. He is going to start buying his own books and toys so he'll appreciate the stuff when we do buy it for him.

Sometimes I wish kids came with instruction manuals and you could jump to the chapter how to handle unappreciative children!