Question
Our 11-year-old son is resists everything we tell him to do. Example: he has to walk the dogs in the morning, and hates to do it. He feels that his sister, who is 7-years-old, has much less responsibility than he does. She does have fewer chores, so I suggested that they share the chore of walking the dogs in the morning, since he told me he doesn't like walking the dog alone. That has not solved the problem. He drags his feet so much in the morning it gets to be too late to walk the dogs. Because he waits until the last minute to do anything (chores, homework), my husband and I feel like we are constantly on top of him. We don't like it, and neither does he. We feel like the more on top of him we are, the more he resists. It's a long established pattern in our family. I think it's making him passive aggressive. Another example: He waited until the last minute to do his science project. It's the second project this year that he scrambled to put together. I wanted to not let him go on a camping trip with his Boy Scout troupe that he desperately wants to go on. My husband thought that was too harsh. But, this morning...no dogs walked, no room picked up, and I am really angry at him. I want to stop being on top of him all the time. How do I motivate him without being too harsh?
