My Bull in a China Cabinet

Some people may read that title and think I'm talking about Drew.  He's the crazy one after all.  However, one of my other kids have been on a streak of breaking things of late.  We are living in a rental here in Germany, and we've made it about 2.5 years without damaging the house.  As soon as our stuff disappeared, it began.  I'm sure that the two are related, but not one hundred percent sure how.  Is he bored with just the smaller amount of books and toys to play with so he needs to hang on everything and break all the things?  Or is his sweet little inner self in turmoil from his belongings being taken over the Atlantic?  Or is it the fact that they are all sleeping on mattresses on the floor and the house rule forbidding jumping on the bed is just too much to bear when you can just walk right on to your bed?

Looks innocent enough, doesn't he?

After the movers took our furniture and household goods, we had temporary furniture delivered to our house.  It is literally the bare bones kind of stuff, a couch and two sitting chairs, a dining room set with a tiny table and eight chairs squeezed around it, and mattresses on the floor.  Brian and my mattress is a full size.  Our feet hang off the end and we feel like we are going to roll off the bed if we roll over.  The mattresses are hard and covered in plastic...not comfortable at all.  I blew up our twin air mattress that I kept for our late mini shipment and just started sleeping there after the first night.  Just hang in there, there is a reason for all this detail.

It all started with the jumping on the beds.  The boys started out just falling onto the beds and pushing each other down onto them.  I warned them they were on shaky ground and if anyone got hurt, it would be the end of it.  Of course, that didn't take long for that game to be over.  Soon there was nothing left to do, but jump on the beds, apparently.  I caught the three youngest jumping on their beds and told them no jumping on beds.  Then I caught them jumping on my air mattress.  I laid down the law and said absolutely no jumping on any beds, but especially not mine!  One morning I catch them "falling" onto my air mattress and told them they are no longer even allowed to touch my bed because of their disobedience.  Then Judah had some friends over and someone tattled on him that he and his best friend were jumping on my bed.  I went and told him he was going to bed early and he was now not even allowed in my room at all.  Not five minutes after his friend left, he and Bobby were in my room jumping on the bed.  What is going on with this boy?  I increased the punishments and banned him from my room indefinitely.  The bed was now totally busted, and he has to use his own money to pay for a new one.  That was only the beginning.

He's come home with broken shoes three different days from Kindergarten.  Granted they were hand me down shoes, but they were the first day he put them on his feet.  He's broken multiple toys which I don't care as much about, but he also broke our car automatic window, the rolladens (outside window coverings) and pulled a rubber seal off the door jam.  Again I cry out, "What is going on with this boy?"  He's now had just about every punishment under the sun.  The only thing left, and I really don't want to have to do this, is to make him have to stay in the same room as me at all times.  One more broken thing, and I may be forced to do it.  Oh, please, don't break anything else!

Back to the mattress again, I mentioned that Bobby had been jumping on the mattress with Judah.  That night while I was saying prayers with him, he interrupted, totally out of the blue, saying, "Judah told me to jump on the bed."  I had not been talking about it or anything.  I took that moment to explain that he shouldn't just do something because someone tells him to if he knows that it is wrong.  Next time, I explained if someone says to do something that Mommy said not to do, tell them, "No, Mommy said we can't do that."  I teasingly said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."  I have heard from outside of their bedrooms several times, Bobby declaring, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"  I think he learned something.  I hope he learned something.