Flasher

Avery is about take a nap. Jackson has a friend over and they are playing quietly,  so for my next hour, I see productive, relaxing painting on the horizon.

Or not.

Jackson had a friend, Taylor, over after preschool last Friday. They were playing in Jackson's room and when I tried to go in, I couldn't, because the door was locked. I told Jackson to unlock it and he and Taylor stood there looking particularly guilty. I asked Jackson what he was doing and he started tearing up, saying, "I don't want to tell you," which is code for, "I was doing something I know was wrong."  A few weeks ago when he was at Taylor's, her mom caught them showing off their "assets" and since then, I have had a conversation with Jackson that private parts are private. My gut told me that was what was going on in the locked room, but I couldn't get it out of Jackson no matter how many times I said, "Jackson, I'm not going to yell at you but you need to tell me the truth." After a few failed minutes, I let him know he'd go into timeout (not sure if he's ever even been there) until he was ready to tell me. In the meantime, Taylor told me what I suspected, that Jackson showed her his privates. 

Fast forward about 40 minutes. Jackson has exhausted himself crying, but refuses to tell me what he did. I knew that he would pass out from fatigue before he broke. Unfortunately for him, he gets his stubbornness honest.  Meanwhile, Avery had taken a 5 minute car nap a few hours early which meant she did NOT want to nap. She's screaming in her crib as I try to give a wailing Jackson an easy way out by saying, "I already know what you did. Did you show Taylor your privates?" Then he started gagging, took a page out of his sisters playbook, and threw up. Poor Taylor, will she ever recover? At this point, I let him lie in the bed.

These are some tired, sad eyes.

 

He passed out, Avery passed out, and Brady came home to play with Taylor. When he woke, I sat next to him and gently asked the same question, reinforcing that he is not in trouble but that he needs to tell the truth. He answered by saying that he was still a little tired. And he laid in bed with his eyes open for the next 30 minutes. Eric came home early and finally got him to admit to him what he had done. I brought up the subject at bedtime and he said, "I told you I didn't want to talk about it."

He'd make a hell of a soldier. Capture that guy and throw any torture his way....not gonna break him.  Myself on the other hand, I felt quite depleted.

 But end goal probably successful -- I don't think he'll be dropping his drawers around friend's any time soon.