UGH!

How do you teach responsibility? How do you teach listening? How do you teach 'catch a clue'?

So the boy heads out of the house around noon. Off to his friends on his bike. Are you taking your lock and chain? Oh no, I don't want to. And besides, if we go anywhere we'll use P's and lock them together. Okay, because remember if your bike gets stolen, it will be a long summer.

It didn't get stolen, but it wasn't because of anything he did. And P's did get stolen.

The decided to go to the guitar store. Well, there was no place to lock the bikes so they just left them there and went in the store. What were we supposed to do???? Eh, take turns watching them, lock them together, not go in the store -- seems like there were several choices.

Lets hope this is the lesson he learns from. P's parent's are not rushing out to buy him a new bike but he does have a back up. My son seemed a bit weary and I think he realized he lucked out this time. We'll keep our fingers crossed.