Meatballs

So I know it's been a while since I have posted anything on this blog and a situation presented itself today that just has to be shared because it's the kind of the thing that I feel like happens on a daily basis in having ten teenage sons.

So there has been this issue for a couple months of someone, one of the boys, putting gross old food in another boy's closet. Pio's closet, or his bed or his shoes. We never really knew who was doing it. There were suspicions, Chucho mostly, but it was never proved.

Then today, today Pio came raging into our house with a bowl of old, smelly, rotting meatballs, that apparently had been in the fridge for a couple weeks. Someone had placed the bowl of meatballs and a note on Pio's bed. The note read, "Yum, yum. Eat up."

Ricardo smelled the rancid meal and nearly vomited. So Pio was quite livid, and with good reason. This called for immediate attention.  Ricardo went to the boys and said that meals would be suspended until someone came forward and admitted to putting nasty food in Pio's things. Peer pressure is one of our favorite teachers.

So a minute later, Chucho came to Ricardo and said it had been him. He had no reason for his behavior other than saying that "Pio bothers him."

We like to let our children choose their consequences. So Chucho's two options of consequences were to eat two of the meatballs that he declared "yummy" or do Pio's chores for two weeks. He chose to do the chores for two weeks which we believe is the better consequence. So we hope that Chucho will stop putting nasty food in Pio's stuff and will generally learn from this situation.

This is just a little snippet of our lives on a daily basis.