Lisa, as a caring wife and mother, I had a huge problem to deal with when my child Jake’s behavior got out of hand. I had to deal with his disrespect for my kids and our house.
I was excited to see Jake, 16, again because he was here for the summer. He was always so nice. That being said, his attitude had changed a lot.
At first, Jake’s lack of interest and messiness were easy to deal with, but things got worse. He left trash and dirty clothes all over the house. I even had to force my eight-year-old daughter Emma to clean his room.
That’s when I made the cut.
I firmly told Emma, “You don’t have to clean Jake’s room.” “You’re not his maid; you’re his sister.”
Emma’s eyes were hurt, but Jake just shrugged it off.
Emma and her brother Noah were locked in a room by Jake during a party while we were not there. This was the last straw. My husband Mark didn’t seem eager to talk about Jake’s behavior.
I wanted to teach Jake a lesson, so my friend Officer Mike and I came up with a plan. We made it look like Jake was found using fake money, and Mike pretended to arrest him.
As Jake begged for help, his shame and fear were clear to everyone.
His plea was, “Please, Lisa, help me!”
Jake broke down in tears after Mike let him go with a warning.
“Thank you, Lisa. He said, “I won’t do this again.”
Jake changed after what happened. He started doing jobs with them, being nice to Emma and Noah, and even saying sorry for what he had done in the past.
Mark also saw the change. “Jake has changed lately. What did you do?”
I smiled. “Just gave him a wake-up call.”
The peace in our home came back, and I learned that tough love is sometimes needed to teach respect.
Have you ever had to teach someone something tough?
