Patience, Endurance and Air

I am getting upset with a fair share of behavioural issues from my boys lately.  Caden has started to want to get things done in his own way. In the past,  I don't have too much of a problem getting him to work on my assignments or getting him to get things done before he rest for the day. Ever since he started his P5 journey,  or perhaps since end last year,  he becomes more complacent,  thinking that he's good enough with his studies and doesn't need to do more to reinforce his understanding.  Especially during this CA1 week, it was so hard to get him to stay focused to do his own revision,  he was easily distracted by stuff he wants to do ( like playing buddy fight, watching TV, or doing his own sketching). I always emphasize to him that he should complete the tasks with higher priority first, before spending time on his own interests.  He will always respond by saying that he already know the concepts so there's no need to revise.. and even when I went through his wrong answers with him, he will defend his own answers with a strong stand and refuse to listen from my perspective (or the model answer's view). I told him that if he's insistent with his own level of understanding,  I hope he can defend his own answers to his teachers should they mark his responses incorrect.

Ethan, on the other hand, started to throw tantrums almost once every two days. He goes on hunger strike during lunch if I don't lend him my phone to watch his you-tube videos. He stops writing his journal when I didn't allow him to use his reward to buy ping pong ball. He refused to eat his breakfast to show his displeasure.  He refused to do my assignments when he doesn't get his sweets. .. so the list goes on.

My ah lou's stand is just let them be- let E starve, let C do badly for his exams and let them take responsibility for their own actions.  I guess I probably cannot expect both of them to be as self-motivated as me when I was young.  These days, I have to take a step back,  learn to breathe more, and to have more patience, endurance and hopefully,  I can get through this nonsensical phase somehow...