The World Gets a Little Smaller - Part II

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*If you want to catch up, Part I can be found [HERE]*

Monday Morning rolls around. One of the down sides to the real-time GPS monitoring is that it requires Cam's location security setting to remain ON (not set for Emergency 911 only) and it gives him a *warning* screen (i.e. "You can be located" message) when he turns on his phone. Unfortunately, I cannot secure those settings and he has access to change them.

So, what's the first thing he does Monday morning? Why yes! He changes the location settings so that the real-time GPS monitoring is deactivated. I send him a text message and tell him he has two options, (1) change the location setting to ON, or (2) lose the phone. He has 15 minutes to make a decision.

After several vulgar (understatement) text messages from Cam, and me responding in a "firm but loving" manner (texting allowed me to breathe), I told him it was in his best interest to abide by my rules. Now, understand that although Cam has been mad at me once or twice (or maybe a bazillion times) in the past, he has never retaliated in anger with vulgar language - NEVER. His final response to me was (this is the EXACT message I received):

I dont want to! Dont u fucking get it already?! IM 13 I DONT NEED UR HELP AT ANYTHING I DO!! IM NOT A FUCKING LITTLE KID ANYMORE! LEAVE ME ALONE! And just an FYI u dont even count as a mom 2 me right now. [Husband] is more of a parent then u!

Ummm ... yeah ... do you think he was attempting to push buttons? Somehow, I managed to keep my composure and not jump in my car, drive home and slap the living shit out of him, and instead continued to responded in a firm, but adult manner. He finally turned the location security setting back to ON.

One of my strategies last week was to show up at unexpected an unannounced times. Cam had been instructed that, under no circumstances, was he allowed to have anyone at the house without husband or I being there. Any guesses to what I found when I went home early for lunch? That's right! I found two of his "friends" at my house - Thing #1 (the 13 year old that has been a friend of Cam's for a couple of years) and Thing #2 (who I was told was a 16 year old, local kid, that Cam had met through Thing #1). They were just on their way out the door, obviously trying to be sneaky and leave before my "normal" lunch time. Little did they know that I would no longer have a "normal" lunch time.

I stopped all three boys in the driveway. I explained to ALL of them that Cam was not to have anyone at the house unless there was an adult present. I informed them that this would be their only warning - that the next time I would call the police and charge them with trespassing. I also told the two "friends" that if they were actually going to call themselves Cam's friends, they might want to consider helping him make better decisions, otherwise they had no business calling themselves his friends. The three of them rode away on their bikes.

Cam kept me in the loop regarding his whereabouts throughout the rest of the day and I didn't come home to anything other than what I should have come home to. I wouldn't be so lucky on Tuesday.

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Spring and other Stuff

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NOTE: I'm looking for some help with a reader issue I'm having (i.e. my more recent posts not showing up in any reader). I've posted a question on the blogger help forum, but we all know how those things go. In a nutshell, I was having some conflicts with html that "magically" appeared in my blog and incompatibilities with FeedBurner, so deleted the RSS feed from FeedBurner and yet updates are still not appearing in any reader. I'm not html savvy (AT.ALL) so am completely lost on how to fix this.

WOOHOO!! Seems this has been corrected. A special thanks to those of you who offered your help. I never cease to be amazed by the camaraderie of bloggers and their willingness to offer a helping hand when someone is an idiot in a bind. Y'all are the best!

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We've had a long winter in northern Illinois this year. It was COLD ... very COLD ... for a very LONG time. We had snow early in the season that stayed until early March. When we finally hit spring on the calendar, I was hopeful I'd start to see buds on the trees and the green tips of daffodils and tulips starting to peak out from hibernation. Ha!

Sunday morning I woke up to this ...

It was quite beautiful - almost like viewing the world through a pair of B & W glasses - but also caused a bit of damage. We started with freezing rain Saturday night. Add 7" of heavy, wet snow and branches begin snapping under the pressure.

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Cam is back to school this week. Unfortunately, his spring break wasn't what he had hoped it would be. An impulsive decision on Tuesday to dig through husband's desk to find the "hidden" PS3 controllers and the unexpected, early return of husband from work resulted in the loss of his cell phone - and the home phone - for the remainder of the week.

Actually, this situation could have been entirely avoided. Husband decided to purchase a PS3 for the "family," yet declared it was his. This declaration meant "No one is to play my PS3 without asking me first" but never were those words spoken. Not only that, but he hooked it up to the TV in the living room - talk about constant temptation. When you've got a 13-year old who is expert at finding loop-holes, clarity and common sense in parenting are critical.

Of course, I could have overridden the punishment (husband and I recently agreed that all discipline would be discussed between us prior to implementation), but the bottom line is that Cam walked into husband's office and rifled through his desk to find the controllers. Impulsivity issues or not, Cam knows the expectations of privacy in our home and his decision to compromise those expectations was unacceptable.

Personally? I think my choice of punishment would have been to go through Cam's desk while he sat on his bed and watched. Something tells me the feeling of having his privacy violated might have provided a much more useful lesson!

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Those of you who read me regularly will notice my HNT archive is "missing". It's in the process of being moved to a separate blog - one that allows me to block access to those who find it so terribly disgusting and offensive, but can't seem to delete that bookmark from their computer or keep their fingers from typing in the blog address. It seems 13 year olds aren't the only ones with obsession impulse control issues.

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Food or Punishment?

Have you heard the news? Today, the Vermont Supreme Court heard arguments in a class action suit brought by inmates who say the Nutraloaf they are being served is not food but punishment. The inmates believe anyone subjected to having to eat it should get a formal disciplinary process first.

So, what is Nutraloaf? Apparently, the recipes vary, but the one used in Vermont (a vegan recipe) includes a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes. It is a nutritionally balanced food served without utensils or trays. Many inmates say they'd rather go hungry than eat it.

Ummm ... yeah ... so how does an inmate in Vermont end up on a Nutraloaf diet? Let me tell you, it is reserved for the very special inmates. These inmates include those who throw feces, urine, trays and silverware at prison staff, or those who have attempted to make weapons out of trays and silverware. Once the inmate stops the unacceptable behavior, he is returned to a "normal" prison diet.

Here's a thought ... quit acting like animals and you will not be treated like one. Better yet, give your Nutraloaf to the people of North Korea who are given a ration of grains from their government and have to forage for fruits and vegetables to supplement the grains. What? That's cruel and unusual punishment? Maybe a little cruel and unusual punishment is what you need considering you find it acceptable to throw feces, urine, trays and silverware at prison staff - something that I think certainly qualifies as cruel and unusual.

Now, for all of you fans of the "not everyone in prison is guilty" school of thought, get a grip! This isn't about guilt or innocence, it's about acting like a minimally acceptable human being. Vermont, I say serve your Nutraloaf and be proud! If the inmates don't like it, maybe they'll work a little harder at staying out of prison next time!