August 27, 2007

I've got a bad feeling

It's Boopie’s first day of High School.

First I can’t believe he’s old enough for high school, especially since he still tends to act like he’s in fifth grade. The hardest part for me isn’t that I have a son that’s old enough to be in High School. No, it’s the fact that I had to give him a key to the house and trust him to get to school by himself.

His school runs from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Both Ktreva and I have to be to work by 9:00 at the latest, and for both of us we are supposed to be there between 7:00 AM and 7:30 AM. That means that in the morning Boopie has to get up, get dressed, get breakfast, clean up after himself and get out of the house and to school on time with out anyone there. It also means that I have to trust him to NOT blow up the house, break anything, stay out of stuff that he shouldn’t be getting into and most importantly locking the house up after he leaves.

Now a lot of people will say, “He’s fourteen, it’s time you start trusting him.” I just can’t. Over the last year and a half I’ve trusted him with various things. I’ve given him responsibilities, duties, chores and opportunities to show me he’s matured into a trustworthy and responsible individual.

He blew each one in a major way.

I’m not talking about a minor infraction; I’m talking about spectacular, catastrophic failure. I’ll give you an example. If you remember I gave Boopie some Softair guns for Christmas. He was given these with the stipulation that you treat them like real firearms. You were safety glasses, they are not to be used in the hosue, you do not point them at another person and you definitely do NOT shoot at anybody with them. If you have friends that come over to the house, you are responsible for them. You need to explain the rules and enforce them. If you horse around, I’m going to take them away.

The first time he had a friend over and they wanted to go outside and shoot I had to interrupt and tell them not to point them at each other. The friend “Tall Boy” responded that they where just toys. To which I replied that I didn’t care, they shoot a projectile that can break glass. You will not point them at each other. All was fine for a couple of months until Boopie and Tall Boy brought over another friend, “EMO Kid” to shoot. I looked out the window and there was EMO Kid pointing one of the guns at Tall Boy. Again I pointed out that they were NOT to be pointing the guns at each other.

Not five minutes later I see Boppie and EMO Kid shooting at each other with the guns. In fact Booopie got shot and was bleeding. Now they are my Airsoft guns, and he won’t get them back. He asked if he could have them back a couple of weeks ago and I told him that he has not proven to be responsible enough for them.

So now I have to leave the boy home alone in a house with black powder, swords, axes, knives, real guns etc… Sure the modern fire arms are secured and he can’t get to the ammo, but that doesn’t mean he might not try to play with the other stuff. Or start going through my personal stuff. Actually I’m more worried about him not securing the house or breaking stuff than anything else. Either way, I’m not comfortable about the whole arrangement.

Unfortunately I didn’t have much of a choice.

Posted by Contagion in Family Life at August 27, 2007 01:33 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Starting High School at 9:30am?

Damn, I wish I went to that high school. We started at 7:30am and got out at 2:10pm.

Posted by: Quality Weenie at August 27, 2007 11:28 AM

From someone who knows Boopie...

Arrghhhh!

I'd be shitting bricks....

Or you could go the route they do at my workplace: Install webcams that only you can access and track what he's doing....

Posted by: Graumagus at August 27, 2007 11:42 AM

Is there a before school program he can join? Early classes, etc? I know at my school, we started at 7:45, but there were still activities as early as 6:30 am, and at my friend's school they have "zero period" where kids can get an extra elective class if they want to come in earlier.

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 27, 2007 11:52 AM

Grau has a good idea, too.

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 27, 2007 11:54 AM

What kind of "high school" doesn't start until 9 freaking 30. And what high school lets out at 2:10? Back when I was in school, Classes started at 8:15 and let out at 3:15. There were kids on my bus that had to be at the end of the driveway at 7 am. I got on the bus at 7:40 and was lucky to be home prior to 4:00.

AND I JUST GRADUATED 5 YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!

I guess that is the difference between a small town (2800 residents, 215 students in the high school) and a big city like Rockford.

Posted by: Petey at August 27, 2007 12:33 PM

I'm sorry. I lied.

I actually graduated 6 years ago, not 5.


BUT STILL!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Petey at August 27, 2007 01:02 PM

I started High School at 7 AM and didn't get out until 3:45 PM, so I don't know what's up with the school hours. Besides, it's not like the Rockford Public School District will work an entire 5 days straight, they always have these spontaneous 'SIP' days...something about school improvement, but I never see anything 'improved'!

We have no choice about this...the High School doesn't offer before school extra curricular activities that I can find. I guess they figure at 14 you are old enough to go without a baby sitter.

Posted by: KTreva at August 27, 2007 03:50 PM

I know exactly how you feel. I would've been the same way about my son. I was so so so lucky to have a job where I could work from home. OMG - I think I have to write a post on this.

In any case, I take it there is no responsible adult around to check on him at "odd" times. Perhaps you can have him call you (even if only to leave a message... like - "I'm leaving for school now" and "I'm home now") Sorry, not much help I know.

Posted by: Teresa at August 27, 2007 09:27 PM

Hell, when I saw Boopie walking past my house, I was wondering, "why ain't that boy in school?" I asked him, he told me he was on his way to school, that it doesn't start til 9:30. 9:30??!!

In *my* day, I had to get up at 5:30, do chores, shower, dress for school, etc. and catch the bus at 7:00. School let out at 3:30 & I didn't get home 'til 4, sometimes 4:30!

*leaning on cane, yelling at kids to get offa my lawn*

Posted by: Wes at August 29, 2007 09:35 PM