The Carrott and the Stick

I know, a wierd name for a thread, but I figure it's appropriate. I just got a VCR off e-bay (waiting for it to get here now) for my son's room.

Last weekend was the first time I had seen him on almost 2 months because I had to take his mother back to court on the visitation thing and she, predictably, acted the fool and wouldn't let me see him until her lawyer advised that she was doing a great job of hanging herself.

That being said, while he was here last weekend, I told him that if he took care of the couple of chores that I had given him, that I would get him a VCR for the TV in his room so that he could watch cable in there (the TV came from my parents, is the kind with the old rotating knobs to change the channel and such.... but still has an amazing picture).

Of course, I also told him that if his grades are very good at the end of the year, I will also hook up his GameCube in there as well.

Funny thing is that I was thinking about this and wondering if I did the right thing, but then I realized that A) he doesn't even have the bedroom to himself at his mother's, B) the only time he really gets to watch what he wants there is when no one else is home, C) No way he'll ever have a TV in his room at his mother's, much less a game system other than portable stuff and finally D)this makes coming to Dad's a whole lot more fun which is a good thing.

I think that my own childhood is fighting with what I feel I need to do for him to balance things out, but hey... he's a darn good kid still.

I know I've kinda rambled on here, but just having one of those days... checking the receipt for the VCR got me thinking I guess.

Anyone else have thoughts on that?? Feel free to share. I know that I am a good dad to my son, but some days it is harder to shake that little niggling bit of doubt than others.

~C

PS: He would not be watching TV or playing games in his room during the day unless we were cleaning or had adult company over for some reason, those would just be for the evening before he went to bed..... I encourage him to spend time with us out of his room on the weekends he's here

 

THanks Halo.... THat is one thing that I can be apreciative of though, when my ex and I split, my son was only 8 months old, so he never had to go through all that stuff, unfortunately, he goes through enough when his mother has a snit about something, which is why I had to go back to court again....

He's a good kid tho


~C