Question
We have nearly 8-year-old boy/girl twins, a 3-year-old daughter, and a new baby girl due any day now. We started daily charts with our twins recently and are having some big struggles with our son. When he loses the 6th block, we send him to his room, as John recommends.
While he's up there, he constantly runs his mouth. He makes any and all sounds or words he can. He taunts us, his sisters, and our pets and usually gets the youngest up there to get her into trouble or to just have a buddy-in-crime. He also sneaks into the hallway and bathroom to make any kind of mess that he can. He also throws things down the stairs, or destroys things. He yells, spits, name-calls, etc both up there and when he's with us.
We've tried ignoring all of this behavior so as to not feed him attention, but it's nearly impossible to do so when he starts destroying things or drags his siblings/pets into it or when he just won't stay in his room. He no longer has a door to his room because he broke it ages ago (before charts).
At this point, it's all become incredibly disruptive to our family. Nothing seems to phase him nor get through to him. Their rooms are already basic - bed, dresser, bedtime friend, and a few books. The kids electronics are limited to tv only and they aren't in many extra-curricular activities. Our son does Scouts and our daughter does piano. My mom lives next door so they like to visit her when she's home, but she gets mad when we "use her as punishment". There's not much to take away at this point.
Do we stay the course or make adjustments? How do we deal with him disrupting the family, sneaking out of his room, and destroying things?
