help with my 8yr old son

[peacepiece]

My son has always been a fairy "easy " kid... no aggressive behavior, good listener, great at school, etc. but lately he is like a diff. kid! Is there an age where boys kinda change? He wants play time with friends ALL THE TIME@!! Every day afterschool it's the first thing he wants. And now he's become real arguementative about simple routine expectations I have...get up, get ready for school, get out the door on time, get to bed on time, etc. I don't know what to do? I took away all afterschool play dates this week and hope he will get it, but it doesn't seem to register. Can anyone shed some light on this? I'm going out of my mind here!! Thanks!

[chfriend]

A great read might be "Hold on to your Kids."

[Twocoolboys]

I second "Hold on to Your Kids."

As an alternative to taking away time with friends, how about scheduling some great activity the two of you could do together? Try to really connect with him. My 9 year old ds and I have developed the habit of playing Uno at night after the two little ones are asleep. We don't do it every night, but we do several times a week. It's fun and we get to chit chat and he gets my attention that is usually on his little brothers during the day.

[forrestguy]

afraid to go on playdates

Especially with new kids. I'm the one that's afraid, not my kids, because I don't trust that they'll act like civilized people. And it's mostly my almost six y/o son. He's been asking for friends, asking, and asking, so we finally met a kid close to his age who is also homeschooling and they seemed to get along, but then he had a playdate over at the kid's house and when I picked him up the mom was visibly at the end of her rope and said it was pretty rough. Then today we go over to a very nice, calm family's house. She was our midwife and she homeschools and her kids are so calm and well adjusted and then my kids come over and wreak havok. There was sword fighting that got too violent and my six y/o trying to wreck a block structure that the older kids made and I just start getting panicky like they're going to do something awful and everyone is going to look at me like I'm an awful parent and that's kind of how I'm feeling right now.

Kim
mom to three loving boys

[forrestguy]

sorry about that last post. I meant to start a new thread, not to reply.