Rotten Kids

We seem to be going through a mean, sneaky, lying phase with Cakes and Silly. Today was the pinnacle. It ended in them being sent to bed at 5:30 with only butter bread and milk for dinner. And that was being nice, letting them have butter on the bread and milk instead of water.

The lying has been going on for a while, always about completely stupid things like whether or not they brushed their teeth or put something away or ate something they weren't supposed to eat. They don't lie well enough to know which lies are easy to get caught in. I guess that's something to be grateful for.

Cakes was supposed to be practicing the piano. I specifically told her to make sure she practiced  everything, filled in all the blanks, and answered all the questions. She played one song and told me she was done.
M: Did you fill in all the blanks?
C: Yes
M: What about these two right here?
C: I didn't see those.
M: That's why they're highlighted. What about this song on the next page?
C: I didn't know I had that song
And on and on and on; can't find a pencil, but hasn't looked, looks in the piano bench where there are four pencils staring right at her and still swears she can't find a pencil.

And then Silly is never ending with asking him to put something away and he says he did it, but really he didn't. He sneaks food all the time. He already had a granola bar and a bag of chips, yet I catch him sneaking chips and eating another granola bar. I saw him sneaking up the stairs this afternoon, knew he was up to no good and told him to freeze. He has chocolate on his mouth and is still chewing, yet swears he's not eating anything.

And then as soon as we get home from his gymnastics class he went and got the rest of the granola bar out of hiding and finished eating it; which is apparently why he wanted the keys so he could rush into the house, retrieve his contraband and run out into the backyard to finish it, hoping I would see. But I went into the back yard and not only catch him, but catch Audrey standing on a patio chair picking the tiny little apples off the apple tree. I've told them 100 times not to pick apples off the tree, but they do it anyway. And apparently they've done it so much that now they need a chair to reach more tiny apples. I was at a loss for the right thing to do, so I did the wrong thing and called my children sneaks and liars.

Then they started fighting and being mean to each other outside. For some reason fighting doesn't bother me, you know, just the usual he has what I what kind of stuff, but I can't stand it when they are just flat out mean to each other. That was the last straw. I made them come inside and sit on opposite couches, told them not to say a word until Daddy got home, which luckily for them happened about two minutes later. I told Scott I didn't know what to do with our mean, lying, sneaky children. We talked it out with them and explained that when they are dishonest, we have to keep a closer eye on them because we can't trust that they'll do what they should do or what they said they'd do. We decided on some painful consequences (no friends for Cakes, and take away the current favorite toy for Silly and no TV or computer for either one of them). Scott did a great job of explaining that the only thing they had to do to avoid those punishments was to do what they're supposed to do. Silly mentioned getting a reward and Scott told him there would be no rewards, other than the reward of not getting in trouble and getting to play with who or what they like best.

I left to get a few things at Sam's Club and bought dinner at Chik-fil-a, including shakes, for myself, Scott and Bubba while Scott put Cakes and Silly to bed with their meager dinner. When I got back he told me Silly just went to his room and didn't seem to mind (he's very tired on top of all this) but Cakes was furious and told him she takes back all the times she said she loves him.

Ah, the joys of parenting.