Poor Kurtis!
The little guy has been having a tough time lately, trying very hard to make "wise choices" as his TSS, Miss Dawn tells him over and over -and OVER again, daily. It's hard to remember exactly what wise choices are though sometimes for all of us, but especially when you're only six years old and also, very excitable at times. Okay -change that to most of the time!
He apparently has been having a string of bad days this week at school. Not paying attention. Trying to outdo other kids as the class clown of the day. Making messes in the bathroom at school with a couple other kids from his class/age range. All kinds of little tricks he's been trying and also, getting caught at them too.
I think Miss Dawn has either sent notes home to Mandy about his homework (instructions) or text messages to her daily since Monday about his behavior and needless to say, all this leaves his Mom in a not so very good mood.
Tuesday night, he was warned by Mandy that if she got any bad reports today on him, he was going to lose the tv set in his room. The only thing that would be considered worse -in the punishment lines -to Kurtis would be if Mandy told him she was going to take Bear-Bear -his very special bear rug shaped pillow that serves as his major comfort zone. And, let's face it -only someone who was looking to inflict cruel and unusual punishment would ever even think of taking away a child's comfort zone.
Right?
Well, the tv set in his bedroom is also a comfort thing for him too -soothes him gently off into dreamland, ya know.
Unfortunately for Kurtis, his actions today at school -for which he got reprimanded not just by Miss Dawn but also by Miss Renee, the therapist who was his second TSS and who is now the behavior specialist who is over Miss Dawn in setting up goals and plans for Kurt's progress! Now Kurt loves Miss Dawn -no two ways about that. But she is with him every day in school and she is the one who generally administers the punitive stuff on him when he's acting up where he should be working, reading, studying. Miss Renee, on the other hand, he sees maybe in passing throughout the week and he knows her quite well, but he also loves her too. And since she isn't usually the one responsible for reprimanding him, he kind of wants to appear to be the sweet little fellow to her and not the grumpy (somedays) and rebellious little boy he often is with Miss Dawn. So when Miss Renee caught him doing something he shouldn't have been doing today, at school, and the word got back to his Mom about that this afternoon when Miss Renee arrived here before Kurtis even got home from school, he knew, I'm pretty sure, that he was gonna be in big trouble!
And so Mandy reprimanded him and then, reminded him very quietly, very calmly too, about what she had told him last night -one more bad report from school and he would be losing his tv in his bedroom.
She told him her bad news for him while Miss Renee was still here today and you could see the hurt in him as his expression changed with the news. Initially, she told him she was removing the tv "for a while" and he had to ask then if that meant "for a day?" And she told him she wasn't quite sure yet just how long but he had to push that envelope some more and then she said probably for a week.
His response to that was "Till tomorrow?" No, buddy -a week, seven days.
"For a long, long while then?" was his next question and she nodded that yes, a week is a long, long while -seven days, seven nights, start counting 'em off, Son!
He willingly went upstairs to go to bed tonight but once in his room and the realization hit him that tv set was missing, the tears, the crying then began. It lasted a little while, then finally was quiet.
But close to 11:00 p.m. I heard the unmistakable sound of him, coming down the steps and then, into the living room where he announced "I'm thirsty!" And Mandy told him to go out to the kitchen and he could get a drink of water.
Katie -his oldest sister -happened to be out there and was in the process of getting herself a big glass of ice water so Mandy told her then to get him a drink while she was out there. She sat her glass of ice water down on the counter while reaching for a cup to get water in it for Kurtis and just that fast, when she turned around to get an ice cube for hm, she saw him standing there, nice as could be, draining the glass of ice water she had just got for herself!
It was in the blink of an eye and the Katie's glass of ice water was gone and he was on his way back upstairs, back to bed too. And nary a thank you to her for that cool drink either!
Let's face it. When the boy wants a drink, he means it. And if he can make that disappear that fast, just think what he'd be like in oh, 10-12 years from now if he would happen to ask for and would receive a debit card for teenagers! Boy, at the rate he went through that glass of water and with the idea then that money flows easily with a card like that, he'd have it drained in nothing flat then, wouldn't he?
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