Who's Watching

Yes sir, we can place another check mark on the calendar!  We have had four wonderful days of continuous good behavior at home.  And I’m going to stress the “at home” part because it doesn’t happen too often.  Puppy is well behaved in class and I imagine it’s due to the structure and routine that is the norm in any classroom setting.  Plus he kind of fears the teacher on account of she has the power to place him in the baby chair as a consequence. 

Let me elaborate on his fear, or I guess I should say it’s also respect towards his teacher and others.  It goes beyond the classroom setting.  I have repeatedly told Puppy that smoke detectors around the house are really cameras that are viewed by his teacher, his uncle, his aunt, Ms. H. and me when I’m away from the house.  Since we can call, text or e-mail each other, we exchange information with one another about his behaviors at home to make our stories more accurate to him, and it has worked for the most part.  Imaginary cameras have saved me many times.  If I see him getting tense, I’ll simply look up and he knows that I’m reminding him to do as he wishes because the camera will catch it for all to see.  It usually gets him to snap and redirects to think fast and make an attitude adjustment or his teacher would come over and see what was happening in person.

It all sounds good, but there was a loophole to the cameras.  What if he just walks away from view?  Oh yes, he thought of this one all by himself.  He’s a bright one these days…sometimes.  Well, to spook him when he walked away, I mentioned once that I thought I saw his teacher driving by as I looked out the window.  My poor baby doesn’t know the difference between a Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon, etc., but he knows her SUV is black.  So as you might imagine, we just happen to see his teacher passing us all over town and the neighborhood.  She’s so busy sneaking up on us that I have no idea when she gets anything else done.  And yeah, I was a terrible mom and I shared this with his teacher – and now she jumps right on cue when he tells her he was well behaved because he saw her drive by the house the night before. 

Before you say I or we are evil playing these tricks on Puppy, come spend a few days in our world and you too, will understand.  Just one note to everyone, please don’t give away the secret!