To DB or not to DB, is it really a question?

[bdub]

The attention span for an 8-12 year old is very short. I agree with labug on this one. Tell them the basics and then let them ask for more. My W adn I broke it down into 3 separate talks over a 2 week period. We used the questions as a guide for what to address next.

I want to share with you 2 of our failures.
1) we called a family meeting. All 4 sat around the dining room table. Since we rarely do this it immediately set the boys into defensive mode and they were nervous, thinking they were in trouble.
2) We said that it was a mutual decision. That lie caused more lies and caused me to start to shut down conversations. We had to have another talk and cleared up the "mutual decision" issue.