spaceman says everybody look down

Last night we finally watched the new Karate Kid movie. Grant has been earning a DS (120 days of good behavior) and movies with John and me (every 10 days of good behavior), and ladies and gents, it has been worth every single penny. Every other year of school has been a nightmarish hellscape up until Christmas, with pink slips and phone calls and conferences with his teachers, and privileges revoked, and essays being written about What He Did Wrong and How He Should Change, and nosy neighbors who volunteer at the school telling my parents with great relish how bad Grant is, and me spending a lot of time sobbing on my knees. It's been a real party.

So at the beginning of the school year we devised this solution and discussed with Grant how we would like to be purveyors of carrots, instead of sticks. He had a couple of roughish days right out of the gate, before we added the interim movie rewards, but ever since then he's been fantastic. Focused, dedicated, all that jazz. It has been surprising to me how well it's gone. I think part of it is due to him being older, but I think we also finally discovered a currency that matters to him. Of course, once he gets the DS it will no longer matter, but I hope by then that his good habits are internalized and he'll be in the habit of behaving well. If not we can at least take away the DS and smash it in front of him to show him how he has brought shame and dishonor to the family.

Speaking of which, I wasn't expecting to like The Karate Kid, but I did. It was much better than I anticipated. Nothing beats watching little kids kick each other in the head.