I Refuse! (being a role model)

I'm not, in general, an early riser. For the most part this is okay, because Mr. Me gets up at stupid o'clock every morning and does all that wonderful parenting stuff while I sleep (but remain fully aware of just how cool that fact alone is).

This morning was no different, but I woke to a curious event. Oldest Son refused to go to school. Point black. "I am not going!" in his best, most authoritative and decisive voice.

It went a bit like this:

Oldest Son: I'm not going.
Mr. Me: Why not?
(a few seconds of stunned silence)
OS: Because I don't want to.
MM: Since when?
OS: Since always.
MM: Nice time to tell me now, five minutes before you're supposed to leave. No, you're going.
OS: I'm not going
MM: And you couldn't have said this earlier? Before you ate your Weetbix? Before you lounged in the sun? Before you watched TV? Before you went to bed last night? It had to be right now, five minutes before you're supposed to leave? No, you're going.
(a few more seconds of stunned silence)
OS: I'll walk half way then go somewhere else then.
MM: Looks like I'm walking with you all the way to your classroom, and on the way, you can tell me why it is that you didn't want to go to school. Let's go!

It turns out he had a fairly decent reason for not wanting to go, but the point is: when something is important, even if it's uncomfortable, you can't leave it until the last minute. If something is important enough that it affects a seven hour block of your day and the day of several other people, it's really unfair to procrastinate it away.

And it occurred to me that my behaviour, that I happened to mention in yesterday's post, has certainly not been invisible.

Is it right of me to support a position (and I do!) which doesn't allow procrastination of that kind, all the while being a hypocrite?

I think it's clear to most people by now that children don't do as you say, they do as you do, and there is no choice about if you get to be a role model. You are if you like it or not. At the extreme risk of being cliche, you can't talk the talk if you don't walk the walk. Down with all this segregational rubbish; we don't have two classes of people in our house. Which means I must hold myself to the same standard.

Sigh. I'm still learning too.



Do you think it's okay to have separate rules for adults and kids?



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