One of these is not like the other

It has always boggled my mind how two children raised in the same house with the same rules, parents and opportunities can be so exceptionally different.

I have two girlfriends who have younger brothers who prove this without a shadow of a doubt. Both of my friends are hard working, law abiding, religious, family oriented females… Both of their brothers are often in trouble with the law, women, their own mothers, irresponsible and consistently make bad decisions – whether it be smoking potpourri or leaving the scene of an accident they caused. It doesn’t have to be that extreme there are brothers who work with me that one is highly intelligent and fluent in Spanish and English, while his brother is not fluent in English at all and requires constant supervision.

With all of this being said and if you are wondering I do have a point- how does this transfer to my boys? The oldest is now 15 and it has been a wild ride up to this point. He is sarcastic, more attitude that you can think one person can have, definitely a member of the ‘entitled generation’ and is solely out for number 1. He has no interest in school, groups, and sports, anything that remotely involves anything we suggest and yet turns around and says we do not offer anything to him that he wants to do. Now keep in mind the child has adamantly stated he doesn’t want to go to Orlando in July, for vacation- why because he doesn’t want to fly. That is the only reason. Now I have done the drive to San Antonio with both of them and it was a whipping so there will be no driving to Orlando.

The youngest is full of energy, caring, wants to be as involved in school as possible has about five different career paths laid out. This is not to say that the oldest doesn’t care about things he does just in his own way. Meaning I have to figure out how to bend it towards him. Sometimes I succeed mostly I don’t.

Right now we are learning the consequences at home they have always been there but for some reason they seem to be grasping the concept that I am not playing around. The house is cleaner as they are picking up after themselves, chores are being done more and when they are supposed to be done. Rooms are more picked up than normal. Something that I have said or done somewhere has finally sunk in. Oh wait go back and cross that last line out because I am afraid I just jinxed myself.

All my Children - sigh...

Well yesterday Jazz decided to take his stupidity to another level. Yes I can say this because A) I live with him and B) he gives new meaning to the word SPECIAL. Shawn was off for the day and I get an email while at work that says:

Jazz is retarded; he popped out the screen upstairs and jumped out, or fell out. Either way, he's ok, and was more than ready to come inside when I realized the screen had been popped out and went looking for him.

So goofball falls out of a second story window and can’t figure out how to get back in? Wow that is classic! I think he knew he was in trouble because he spent all night being very sweet, which is totally out of character for him. I am still in shock that he somehow didn’t take off running since he is my adventurous fuzzy child.

The other fuzzies are just the same as always Simon sleeps the day away and was snoring at me while Shawn was in the bedroom on the phone last night… So not fair since I wanted to go to bed myself but as I had TPC stuff to do could not quite manage it yet and it was also only 8:30. Belle somehow managed again to come into our room without the dynamic duo pouncing on her and she insisted on sleeping on my pillow again. It used to be my two legged children who didn’t sleep at night and now it is the four legged ones…