When I picked my 8 year old son up from the childminders last night, he was on the naughty step.
I asked why and was told he had weed into a bottle at the park, and was threatening to throw it onto the other children.
Thankfully he hadnt done it, but I am unsure if this is because he wouldnt, or because my daughter told the childminder what was going on before he could do it.
Absolutely devasted and shocked about this, my wife and I have always been proud of how well behaved and sensible our children are, and often receive positive comments from other people about them, and to be honest I was quite proud of them and the job I thought we were doing until now.
We knew he was a little less sensible then his sister, but nothing you wouldnt put down as anything other then his age, and up to now his worst transgessions have just been normal sibling fights - he HAS been brought up to know better then this, and I am very dissapointed that he even thought of doing this, let alone tried it.
We cant get a clear, honest answer from him if he thought of it, or the other children involved (two other boys) thought of it - his answers keep changing - but even so, he should have known to walk away from a bad idea if he didnt think of it.
We are obviously punishing him by grounding him, giving him a good talking to, and not letting him onto pc or xbox, but while my wife isnt very worried, I am very worried - this doesnt seem like normal 8 year old behaviour to me - despite the lack of other misbehaviour it just seems a very odd thing for an 8 year old to dream up :(
We moved into a street 2 years ago that has a lot of former council estate children on it due to the affordable housing policy on all new build estates, and while I try not to be judgemental some of them are less well behaved or desirable company (to be fair, some of them are great kids too) and my kneejerk reaction last night was to blame the company he has been keeping, as he does have trouble not following other peoples examples - but after a nights sleep on it I am less sure as we have constantly taught him right from wrong.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? Does anyone have recommendations that despite being extreme, is relatively normal young boy stupidity?
So upset by his behaviour, and grateful that it got stopped before he actually did it - I cant imagine what I could have said to parents and children if he had sprayed them