Yeah, I get that. The hard part for me has been getting MrsGGB to not let him slide. Each time she does, it makes the next one that much worse.
Today, I saw a prime example of him appreciating the bounds. We require him to put half of his earnings into a no-touch bank account, and that has to come out of his paycheck before other expenses. Earlier this year, when he first got his job, he had a $700+ cell phone debt to pay off, so we took the phone and he wasn't allowed to get it back until he paid off his debt. MrsGGB told him that he could apply 100% of his paycheck to the debt and then catch up later with the no-touch account. Well, he did that, and got his phone back, with the condition that 75% of his check goes into the no-touch account until he catches up. He missed the last three paychecks, so today we sat him down and asked him for a check for 75% of his last 3 checks. That left him with about $35 before paying his $94 phone bill. He tried to negotiate down the bill (~$65 of it was texting which normally would have been covered under a text plan that got turned off when he switched phones last month). We stood firm and said that it was his bill. We gave him the option of not paying the texting portion, but if that was his choice then we would also turn off texting and block the service on his phone like we did for the other phones. He pissed and moaned about how unfair the set-aside funds were, that we weren't fair about the cell phone, and a litany of other unrelated things. We stood firm, and eventually got the check from him for the set-aside account, and told him that this one time since the phone bill was larger than expected he could keep it until his next paycheck, but that it had to be paid Friday when he gets his check or he loses it until paid. Well, when all was said and done he stomped up to his room, telling us he hated us, the house is a "hellhole" etc. Apparently he cogitated over the whole thing, because when he did emerge, he's been very pleasant and conciliatory. The constant testing is wearing, but it also strengthens my resolve to be firm. I'm hoping that MrsGGB sees that the world didn't end and that S17 didn't hold it against us for maintaining the boundary.
