One of the hardest parts of being a single mother is when I have to “fill in the Daddy spot.” Recently I discovered my son has billed about $80 to our cellphone pulling pictures off the web onto his phone. He is only 11!
Now I could get completely off topic and say the first time he tried this was when he was with his friend A. Last time these two got together A’s dad basically accused my son of being a bad influence. Well how come my never knew how to download this stuff until he spends time with A? This is no excuse, he still engaged in the behavior but this kid is a catalyst.
Chandler quit this behavior all on his own 2 days later but the $80 had already been spent. And was discovered by me on Saturday when the bill arrived. It is a really good thing he was with his dad this weekend because it gave me a chance to calm down and plan out what I would say.
So last night after the kids got home and the girls were in bed I sat down with Chandler. We talked about why he did it. We talked about what the consequences would be. We discussed the money it will cost. And do you know what? There was no crying. There was no “that’s no fair.” There was no “I hate my life, I want to go live with Daddy.” None of the awful yelling I was expecting. Chandler was truly remorseful of his behavior.
And when I got back downstairs I breathed a sigh of relief. I had been dreading the conversation. In my opinion this is the kind of conversation a boy should have with his father. Unfortunately the last time I tried talking to his dad about it I basically got blown off and accused of blowing things out of proportion. So I decided it was up to me to have the conversation myself. I’m glad I did, it went better than I could have hoped.
Maybe I’m getting the hang of this mommy and daddy thing.
