How do you respond when your kids push your buttons?
Offspring, who constantly fight, bicker, whine and complain can drive a parent to his or her breaking point, which can then lead to a time out for the offending child, a revoking of privileges or a stern lecture.
I typically opt for the latter when my daughter pushes the limits because it has proven to be quite effective. At some point it may no longer yield the same results. Still, I can say with almost 100 percent certainty, if lecturing doesn’t do the job, I won’t be calling the cops for assistance in disciplining my kid.
But, that’s just me.
Other parents may see dialing 911 as the only way to preserve their sanity when their kids’ squabbling gets out of control.
Take for instance, a mom from Salem, Massachusetts. She hit her breaking point when two of her teens wouldn’t stop fighting. However, instead of sending the bickering siblings to their respective rooms, the mom chose to call police and have her kids hauled away.
“Arrest them both — I can’t take this anymore.”
Those are the words responding officers were met with when they arrived at the woman’s house last week, according to news reports.
Police say the single mother of five was overwhelmed by her warring children. She lamented to officers that her kids had been fighting all day, but the feuding escalated when she left the home to run an errand.
According to reports, while the mom was gone her 15-year-old son punched his 8-year-old sister in the arm, which caused the woman’s 16-year-old daughter to push her brother to protect her younger sister. The 16-year-old later told police she’d been pushed to the ground by her 15-year-old brother before officers arrived at the scene.
When the mom returned home she lost it and called police.
Asked “what she felt we as a Police Department could do to assist her with the issues she’s having as a parent,” the mother replied, “I want them both out of here,” according to the police report.
The woman then begged police to arrest her 15 and 16-year-old.
In the end, officers gave the woman’s teenage son a summons to court for hitting his 8-year-old sister and the state Department of Children and Families was contacted to assess the situation in the home.
Have you ever been so sick of refereeing your kids fights that you’ve been tempted to request police intervention?
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