I've never posted on sites about parenting advice but I've been finding myself needing it more often lately. I'm hoping that some of the parents here can tell me what they would have done in the situation I'm about to discuss.
I have a 10 y/o son that is so out of control and defiant that he has to be in a special school for kids like himself, and I have 2 daughters (8 & 6) that are pretty well behaved. My son had been asking for about 2 weeks before Christmas to open some of his presents. We kept telling him no, and he knows better anyway. On Christmas Eve before my son went to bed he told me that he was going to get up at midnight and open all of his presents. I told him that he better not and honestly I thought he was joking because like I said he knows the routine. So Christmas morning, 6am, my husband wakes me up to tell me that he can hear kids already. They were getting into their stockings which was ok. My husband walked out to get some coffee and then back to the bathroom. My son came in and I told him that they better not be opening presents yet and he told me that the girls were. I went out there and told them to go back to bed for a while because what they did was wrong. My husband and I both grew up knowing that no matter how early we got up on Christmas morning we had to wait for our parents before me even thought about touching even our stockings. I was really upset that the kids had done that. Then my oldest daughter kept asking me and even in tears at times when could she open her presents. It just felt like all they cared about was opening gifts so we ended up not opening any. I just kept crying all day because I felt so bad about everything that had happened but I don't want to raise selfish kids. I also found out after the fact that my husband had sarcastically said "why don't you just open them all up" because my son was making a pile of all of his stuff. I was still in bed at that time and I'm also angry with him for saying that even though the kids should have said no, lets wait for Mom. They left to go to their father's house at 2pm that day so they still got to open presents there. I'm not even going to get started on how bad he spoils them. Anyway, I hope that no one will judge me for what I did but I would appreciate feedback.