So, last night, Skids were out of control. Finally, DH had had enough and got really mad at them and started yelling. Well, SS12 decided he was going to call DH's parents on his cell phone to tattle tale on him because he was being "so mean" and he "didn't want to stay here with us." (To bad every time he says that, he has his bluff called when one of us says, "Fine, on MOnday I'll go down to the courthouse and make it so you won't come here anymore. See ya." Then, naturally, SS12 starts crying and says, "Noooo! I want to come here, I want to be with you!" Anyway...) Of course, SS12 is a total drama-queen and apparently made it sound like they were in mortal danger. I was just getting out of the shower when I heard my DH talking on the phone with M-I-L about these two a-hole kids, it was heated. My in-laws still treat these kids like they're 3 and 5 years old, by the way, and of course when DH and B-I-L were growing up, if they behaved like the Skids do now, that was a punishin'. But now DH is too hard on the Skids when he does the exact same things his parents did when he was a kid. I heard just enough of the conversation (i.e. "I'm doing exactly the stuff you used to do, and now it's wrong?...Yeah I've heard you yell at them too, so don't tell me you don't,") to know who it was.

So after the whole conversation where nothing got resolved because no one was willing to concede, what happens this morning at 11:00 a.m.? Uninvited, my in-laws "drop by" because they're "in the neighborhood." His parents are NEVER in our neighborhood because 1) they live 45 minutes away, and 2) they're afraid of multi-culturalism (we're pretty much in the minority being white), so as soon as I knew who it was, I was like, holy shit, are you joking? They've come by to make sure the Skids aren't dead. Sure enough, it only took about 5 minutes after M-I-L made sure to give us plastic sheets for SS10's bed (really?) before they launched into how DH needs to be more patient, and he's doing everything wrong, and that the Skids are just little guys and they need more patience (aka they should be able to get away with whatever they want all the time). I had to get dressed and brush my teeth, etc. because I was really going to say something nasty and there would've been a fight, and I don't like that. I knew what was next would be something about how I'm not a parent, so I'll never understand, etc. (PS, I have a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Special education, I've had many behavioral plan successes, and I've been working with kids for 20+ years...and I'm only in my early 30's, so tell me I don't know how to make kids behave when I want to.) So when I was ready, I came out and was like, "Okay, well we've got a ton of stuff going on today, so..." They left because they said they had to go up to Longmont (about an hour in the opposite direction from us in Denver...that's probably a 20 minute drive from their house right outside Boulder). They're leaving and they start coddling these kids saying, "Just listen and behave, okay?" I said, "Oh, it's not going to be a choice because we're taking the house back. Anyway, have fun in Longmont." I'm trying not to spit at this point.

So, I've decided that yes, taking back the house is in order, and I'm not even consulting DH about it. It's time for a good old-fashioned behavioral plan that I do with your average 7 year old with behavioral problems. I'm printing it out, implementing it, and I don't care what ANYONE has to say about it. The cell phones will be removed from their possession first thing in the door, they'll have to earn them back, and if they use them to call and tattle tale for making them actually do things that 10 and 12 year olds are expected to do, phones are taken away again. They have to earn their priveleges and act like their ages. Period. Printint it out...now.