Acts of Responsibility
Is it really happening without any prompting from us?
April 17, 2023 | 10:45 PM
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Responsible: adjective: able to answer for one's conduct and obligations
I have to gush about Ash. I’m super impressed with how on top of his stuff he’s been. And I’ve noticed a pattern in his behavior. After a Scouting event or outing, Ash is more focused and in a mindset where he’s tackling his responsibilities.
On Saturday, he attended a BSA Merit Badge event from 8am - 4pm. The next day, Grant and I went out on a date night with two of our friends that we hadn’t seen since the pandemic. When we got home, we found Ash putting away his laundry and hanging his clothes in the closet - without any prompting from us! Actually slipping hangers in his shirts and folding his pajama pants and placing them in his dresser drawer instead of strewn about on his beanbag!
Today, we snuggled and watched an episode of Sulphur Springs after we ate our snacks together. Usually, he would try to get us to watch something right up to a minute before his online tutoring session is supposed to begin. Not this time. It was ten minutes before his session was to begin and I offered to start another episode.
Ash says to me “Mom, I got my class in ten minutes. I gotta be at my desk ready to go.” Invasion of the body snatchers! Like for real, who is the kid? Seriously though, I’m beyond elated that Ash has been responsible, something that is coming from within himself. It’s like the advice and reasoning that we’ve given him is finally clicking together and making sense.
The final surprise of the day happened at bedtime. Usually on my way to my bedroom after my shower, I’ll see that Ash’s bedroom light would be on. He would be in bed or on his beanbag reading a book. This time when I stepped out of the bathroom, his light was off and Headspace was playing (Cat Marina specifically). He was already in bed with the lights out!
I asked Grant if he asked him to turn out the light and he said no. The last time he spoke to him was before he left for his evening walk around the block. This meant that Ash self-regulated and chose to put down his book , turn out the light, and go to bed. He put himself to bed without any prompting from us!
Now I’m not expecting it to be like this each day, but I see that Ash has the potential to make it so. And whatever he experienced at the Scouting event on Saturday really put him in the mindset of managing himself, being responsible for his chores, and doing tasks without us butting-in.
What I learned:
Mindset: Ash does well with his responsibilities after coming home from a Scout outing. At these outings, he has specific areas of responsibility that the troop is counting on him to complete or keep track of. So after spending so many hours in that mindset, he naturally brings that home and applies it to his responsibilities at home.