My son is driving me crazy. He's a tRumper.

[TigressDem]

33. He's been getting personal responsibility lessons since age 2.

I gave him choices that were acceptable and he got to make decisions, but told him what those choices meant in age appropriate terms (we were in therapy, what can I say?).

When he was young, I put him on time out, but as a hyperactive kid it was hard on both of us for him to sit while upset. So I bought a mini trampoline that people use to exercise and that was his time out spot. He had to bounce on it for the whole 5 minutes. It was such a different mind set for him, he asked, "Can I keep jumping on it?" after the 5 minutes were up. "Yeah," I said and it was a new era in our discipline scenarios. Previously, he would get another 5 minutes of time out when he would blow up or go off the rails during time out. Having the trampoline got his energy out even during the "cabin fever" months. So less time outs in general.

BUT he got used to that and so I started taking him on "laps" around the apartment complex where his number of laps began as something like 2 and would go up to 20 or 30 because he would resist and fight over it. Then he got the option of cooperating to bring down his laps and usually would work it down to somewhere around 5 or so by the time he became calm enough for the actual conversation of You did X, I need you to do Y and apologize for your behavior.

As a teen my best talks with him were on road trips.