And so the stand off begins!

Well...it's been a while...long enough that I don't even remember the last time that I posted (and honestly, am just too bloody lazy to go back and look!). Anyhow, things in my home have been....interesting.

First, I had a baby (I think I may have posted that)....he's a year old now. So, I am now the mother to 4. These children include a 16 yr old step son (the reason for this post), an 8 yr old daughter, a 5 yr old son, and the 1 yr old baby. Sometimes I wonder about myself!

Anyhow, as if having a baby and running an in-home daycare wasn't enough of a challenge, I also decided to register for school (again, another possible blog post there!). I'm now in Red Deer College studying for my Early Learning and Child Care Diploma. I'm about 6 months into a 4 year course. Again...sometimes I wonder about myself.

Anyhow...onto the reason for this post. My step son and I have had a rocky relationship from the start. We are both Scorpios, and though, in my faith we are not supposed to believe in these things....each of us has the traits of a Scorpio....stubborn, quick temper, and a long, long memory! Not necessarily the best thing when the two of us are put together. We tend to either get along really well...or tolerate each other for the sake of the rest of the family.

Well, he's now reached the ripe old age of 16...you know, the age when they know everything?!? Well, apparently he's so brilliant, that he no longer needs to attend the first period in school. That's right, the kid who never had to try to get good marks in math, figured he could continue to slide and continue to breeze through the class.

Yes, we hassled him. Yes, we tried everything....spraying him with water (sounds bad, but it woke him up), Taking the phone away, setting an alarm and hiding it in his room.....all of these things and many more....and none of them worked. Wait, let me rephrase that. They worked....he would wake up....he just wouldn't go to class.

Then, when we'd ask "why weren't you at school on time?"...the wonderful reply that we'd receive was, "I was at school, I just didn't go to class." *insert the patience of Moses here*

By this time, I have given up. I decided that it wasn't worth the stress and the effort. I'd talked to him, I'd tried to reason with him, I'd tried to be his friend, I'd tried being a female dog about it.....nothing worked. I decided it's for his mother and father to work out, and I would just keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself (and, if you know me, keeping opinions to myself is not an easy task!!).

Well....it all came to a head this week. Schools are much more savvy than they were when I went.....they now send report cards to the parents via e-mail in a PDF file. Fabulous. We got his report card on Monday....the class which he's been "too smart" to attend he got an average of 21%. No, that is not a typo. My stepson...the one who regularly got in the 80% has a whopping 21% average in math. Needless to say, we weren't impressed. However, I stuck to my promise to keep it zipped. And I did.

The next morning, when it was blatantly obvious that he would be late again, hubby get's serious. This usually means shouting that leads to nothing but resentment. This, however, was a different case. Instead of going and shouting, he went to the tool room and grabbed a drill. He took the room darkening shades off of step son's window. Then, he got a hammer, and proceeded to take the door off it's hinges. The whole time, he did not say one word.

"What about my privacy?!" shrieks step son.

Hubby turns around and says "You'll have privacy when your marks are acceptable" and walked away.

Step son got ready and left for school....brooding the whole way. But, guess what?? Today, he was out of the door on time.