Zach Attack: Part 1

Lately this son of mine has had me dumbfounded, perplexed, incredulous, and roaring with laughter...all at the same time.  This series will focus on some of the events that have led to such emotions!

Zach has been known to destroy things.  We worked through that phase, and came out the other end, ready to enter a brand new house with a brand new Zach who was keenly aware of the ramifications of destroying any bit of this house.  And this is how we lived.

For a while.

Until recently.

You see, thinking he had finally proven himself worthy of having things in his room.  (ie something other than a bed, a dresser and SOFT stuffed animals) we painted one wall in his room green (as promised when we moved in) and put a super awesome map of the world up on said green wall.  This map was at his eye level with push pins around the perimeter holding it up.  Having had quite a long stretch of responsible talking and behavior, I was surprisingly not concerned about leaving him in his room with these things for an hour each day during rest time. 

Until.

I walked in once to ask him a question and he whipped around like a kid with his hand in a cookie jar.  Only his jar was filled with push pins.  He had taken them out of the wall and was playing with them. 

Stern reminders of destroying and consequences followed.  Threats of taking the map down forever ensued.  Problem solved.

Until.

I catch him again, a week later.  The map comes down.  Green wall is bare.  Zach is broken hearted (supposedly).

And now bored.

Never fear.  The handy Leapfrog Tag Reader comes in handy.  Zach has been using this thing so well, and really reading with it!  Of course I will let him do this (over destroy with push pins) during rest time!  Completely logical.

Until.

You look closely, and see that the end of a Tag Reader has a striking resemblance to a large push pin.  Hmmm. Wonder what would happen if I push it into a wall?  Turns out it will create a hole, larger than a push pin would.  And of course, naturally, you might wonder, what exactly is inside that hole?  Can I make that hole bigger?  Can I get to the inside of the wall?

What?  Not what you were thinking?

Zach did.

And when we found this small-hole-turned-dug-out-nest, I confess to you, we did not jump into a conversation about "why" or "how."  The boy was in trouble.  We told him he was going to pay to fix this wall with his own money, took away things he loved (including the Tag) and he got a nice sized loving swat on his behind to help him remember that we do NOT dig into the house! 

One problem.  The kid had enough money saved up that he was able to buy the patch kit, AND a toy, AND a soft drink for him AND one for his dad.  So spending his money wasn't too big of a deal for him.  PLUS he was BEGGING to help fix the wall.  So, where as a typical punishment would involve him paying for and working on the repair himself, we had to do it ourselves in order to actually hand down an effective consequence!  *sigh* 

But, problem was solved, and after a week or more, I obliged and returned the Tag to him and life moved on.

Until.

We found two more smaller not-so-involved holes on his wall one night as we put him to bed.  No dug-out nests this time, but patch-worthy holes nonetheless.  To say we felt defeated was an understatement.  However, this time I was determined to get to the bottom of this!!  Being recently prodded to be after my child's heart and not his behavior, I asked him what he was thinking about while he did this to his wall.  What was he trying to do?

This boy's mind is non-stop "How It's Made."  He wants to know everything about everything.  "Why" is his favorite question.  Everything in his world must have reason.  So, his ultimate explanation for the small hole turned into a dug out nest in the dry wall was, "I wanted to see what was inside the wall." 

Finally.

Reason.

I can work with this!  I explained to my love that being curious about how things work, and what they are made of is a GREAT thing!  But sometimes, to find the answer, it might take a Mommy or Daddy!  We could go to the store and look at their walls, I can find pictures of the inside of a wall to show him, etc.  He quickly connected this thought to when we would get pictures of Emily when she was in my tummy!  "YES!" I exclaimed!  "And you didn't go digging into my tummy to see her did you?!?!  We looked at a picture! Same with your wall." *not really, but to a five-year-old I guess so!*

Being a repeat-offender, the Tag pen is currently still in Time-Out.  And an monumental extra loving swat did occur to hopefully give some extra help in remembering how bad of an idea it is to take apart our things like that. 

In the end.  I just love him more.

He is a destructive little beast.  But he is curious like all kids are...just in a destructive way.  He loves to learn more about things, even if it is not the way I would ever always choose.  His heart is not devious.  He does not destroy to vandalize.  He makes me think outside the box.

So glad I get to be his Mommy...even if it means patching up walls!