The hard line isn't cheap!

The Hard Line to Save Son - by TOM BRODBECK


This was in the Winnipeg Sun this morning:


Caroline, a single mother of two teens, said she was running out of options when she sent her troubled, quarrelsome 14-year-old son to a military-style, private boarding school in Ontario last year.

Technically, it's not a boot camp. But as a rigorous, highly disciplined academy that teaches respect, loyalty and responsibility, it may as well be." Read more...



I can't believe that a harder line would have done me any good. God knows, they tried. Spanking and whatever negative input only served to hack away my self esteem and destroy any hope of a positive self image.


My parents are wholly off the hook on this. What chance did they have to do anything differently than they did? I'd guess next to none, given the models they came to parenting with. What was standard wisdom then was much different than now.


With our youngest (12), it seems I've had some success softening the hard line, PU (whif) finds it second nature. We absolutely pounded the school on these issues this year. Not a ball was dropped on my part and I hounded every move to make it as accountable a process as I could. The pattern for years has been that by Christmas break things are beginning to fall apart and by spring break it's chaos.


Yesterday Manon brought home a glowing report card with unprecedented levels of performance. Even with the thickest teacher she managed a 75%.

Fight!
Ian