Hello, thank you so much for these Wednesday mornings! It helps me just to hear the other callers and to listen to the replays to keep me encouraged and keep going with TSG.
My daughter, age 11, has long struggled with roles. She longs to be the teacher and not the student, the parent and not the sibling. Last week she began telling me what she would and would not do with her school work. She did not want to disagree appropriately and was quite set on engaging in power struggles and arguing with me. She informed me what she was willing to read and not read; what spelling she would do and not do; and what math she would do and not do. I told her that I am the teacher and she is the student and I am willing to listen to her disagree appropriately, but ultimately, as her teacher, I get to decide what is best for her in school and her job is to complete her assignments. In the end, I offered her a chance to work instead of do school until she was willing to accept the role of student and myself as the role of teacher. So she did 3 days of chores instead of school. Today she chose to begin school again, but already she has been disagreeing appropriately trying to negotiate less school. She is an avid reader and will read all day, but she is now in 6th grade and I feel regular time in math and writing/ Language Arts/spelling is important. Am I correct in offering her the work or school option to avoid power struggles and reinforce roles? Is this in alignment with TSG?
Thank you.