Growing Pains

3/15 - It's been a really rough past two to three weeks at home.  One of the hardest things for a parent to do if to follow through on a consequence they issued when the child doesn't measure up to what is expected.  Well,  here's the story….

Devon ran XC in the fall - did very well and we were all so proud of him.  It was excellent in many aspects of his life.  He was in excellent physical condition (6.06 minute mile), he had to manage his time wisely, he slept great, ate extremely well and made friends and teammates.  All the while, he maintained honor roll grades, stayed active in his scout team and his church callings.

Well, when XC season was over, we gave Devon the month of December off, but then once January came around we encouraged him to do Winter track.  He didn't want to so we decided he could continue running a few times a week at home, just to keep up the physical conditioning and the good use of time.  Week 1 goes by - no running, week 2 goes by - no running.  In the mean time, as a FAMILY we decided to have everyone run in the Anthem 5K run (Triple Crown).  Everyone needed to be conditioning for the run - including DEVON.  Marissa was running, Robert was running and doing indoor soccer, Jessica was in the middle of basketball season and Betsy was running - where was Devon.  Devon was warned that if he didn't run at home, his parents would enroll him in Spring track.  He still didn't run.  To make a 6 week (long story) short … he ran once in six weeks (three days before our big race).  Needless to say he didn't run anywhere near his normal time.  That was 2/26/11.

The next Family Council Mark and I informed Devon that due to his choices not to run during January and February, he would be starting Spring track on March 7 (Monday).  He flipped - no he FLIPPED OUT!  I've never heard him try to argue his case from so many different angles to no avail.  It was pointless, but he was relentless.  He couldn't accept that he had to accept his consequence.

He would try to convince Mark or myself that he didn't actually agree, or that we didn't give him a chance, or it was too cold, or …  you get the picture.  He tried and tried and tried.  I felt so sad for him, but I knew he had to accept the established consequence no matter how painful.

So when track practice started, you can imagine the resistance he put up - "I forgot my track bag, Mom, I can't go."  Mom's reply, "That's okay, I brought it to school for you."  Devon eventually figured out that he was going to be on the team, attending practice after school, but for the days between 2/26 and 3/10 (that felt like weeks) it was torture!

Worse, on his first day of practice that Devon attends he is bullied by the team captain (one of them) and another senior.  What kind of team is this?  These are the same guys that he ran XC with.  CRAZY!  UNBELIEVABLE!

Never in the time that my kids have been on teams (and that's nearly 10 years) have we experienced this.  Poor Devon - he's just had too many LIFE LESSONS or GROWIN' UP Pains to deal with in such a short amount of time.