Behavior Modification

Des has the most irritating habit of shouting for no good reason and singing quite loudly. He is a loud child to begin with but when he sneaks up behind you and shouts some gibberish the effect is jarring. To say the least. Some of his songs are entertaining, but then he sings them over and over again, loudly. so it kinda takes the shine off. Our favorites are Hey, Finlay! , Ohmanoma (the lyrics to this one consist solely of "Ohmanoma, cheebadeeba") and I Hate Everyone(Because They Don't Do What I Want).

Anyway, on the way to the bus the other morning, Des let it slip that he might get suspended if he doesn't stop shouting all the time at school. Ray said "So where are you going to go?" Des said "I guess I'll go to a babysitter with Cady and Finn." Ray said "No way, there isn't even room for you at Cady's school. And we're not paying for Sudbury and a babysitter. If you get suspended you're going to regular school." Nothing strikes fear into Desmond's heart like the threat of regular school. Now most likely he would only be suspended for a day so I don't know what Ray was thinking. And in the time it has taken me to type this I can't remember what my original point was. Oh yeah, behavior modification. So it's great that sudbury will get in a kid's face about their behavior. Not just the big stuff like stealing, lying, breaking rules etc. but in this case being annoying. Once again, JC is a neutral tool for telling people that the way they are acting just will not work in the community.

We can't suspend him from our life though. And we wouldn't want to. I wish we could get him to take a music class or something and let him go nuts there. Ray and I are not musical people. We don't know how to find a positive way to help him express himself without driving us all crazy.