Disciplining an 8 year old boy

[bubchelhail]

My 8 year old son forged my signature on a letter of apology he was supposed to write to his teacher as a punishment for misbehaving and disrupting the class. Up to this point, priviliges such as television or sweet snack were removed as punishment. However, forging my signature is much more serious and I do not know what an appropriate punishment might be. He is a good student and well behaved at home, but this is unacceptable and I do not want this type of behavior to escalate into something worse. Any recommendations? Thanks.

[margypops]

bubshell, try the kindness route ,you gave out the punishments, try going tre opposite route ,focus on his positive side and praise him when you see him doing something right,  Stace try taking a step back , give him longer to do his homework or is it a race and let him be in control of how and the time it takes, back off..Nick..Again how about you let him be in control over his cleaning habits, take a step back and walk in his shoes, if you can think like that it will help you a lot, if you find you are nagging about his shoes about his clothes about his bathing, etc etc,,, what time is there for Fun and Games and sports , get him so busy with a lot of activities his head will spin, enjoy your child, they grow up too quickly.. good luck.

[NickBass]

My son is 8 1/2 years old and it seems the older he gets the worse his behavior gets.  I am a single mom that lives with a close friend for the past 5 years.  My friend and I have been raising my son under hard financial strains but give him a lot of love and support.  We try to give him everything we can to the complete lack of getting things for ourselves that are mandatory needs.   My son has a tremendous amount of anger that comes out constantly in temper tamtrums, talking back and being extremely rude to us and all around us, including his own friends.  

He runs away from us, he refuses to do anything for himself without an outragous amount of force.  He refuses to bath himself, brush his teeth, wear appropiate clothing, eathing properly at the dinner table and it would be out of the question to get him to do any chores even picking up after himself.  He treats us like his servants and has nasty responses to everything we try to talk to him about or teach him.

We have tried time out, taking away his things, grounding him from play etc.  Nothing seems to have an effect on him.  Lately, he has started to physically push me and threaten to hit me.

I need help with this child very badly.   I am sure I am not doing all I can do, but I need to know how to execute the right ways and have the strength to make changes in this child's life.  Otherwise I see a clear pattern of him growing up to be a mean and selfish person that will hurt everyone around him, which is already happening.

Please advise if you can.

[Stace999]

my 8 year old boy is a sweet kid.  BUT... He has an explosive temper and fits of rage.  We had him evaluated by a psychologist, and she said that he did not have ADHD, where the information bounces off the top of the head and never gets in.  What he has is where the information gets to the back, and he doesn't know what to do with it.  He's very disorganized, and it takes me 1.5 - 2 hours to get 20 minutes worth of homework done, due to his temper tantrums and whining.  Any advice?

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[RockRose]

I don't think forging your signature is necessarily such a much.  It's not like an adult who forges a signature to pass bad checks.

This boy was very afraid of your disapproval,  so he forged your signature so you wouldn't be angry at him.  

He is a good student,  and well-behaved at home.  I think you need to ease up a little tiny bit,  and tell him if he gets in trouble at school you want to know RIGHT AWAY so you can work this whole thing out and help him understand the rules and get back on track.

You're describing a rule-follower.  If you were talking about a boy who was a constant struggle,  who always was in trouble,  I'd feel differently.  

Sounds like he wants to please you and he's kind of afraid of your disapproval.