Today my daughter asked if she could ride her bike outside. “Of course!” I told her. It was a beautiful day and my car now sits in the driveway because my new bike is too big to site next to the car in the garage.
She opened the garage door, brought her bike outside then closed the garage door so she could go out the front door and then ride her bike. When she came in I asked if had any issues getting her bike out. She stuttered a little although answered no.
I thought, maybe a little more digging was in order. I asked if she hit my bike at all. She started to tell this story about how she was able to pull her bike out between my motorcycle and the wall and how she didn’t hit my motorcycle at all though.
Now I knew she was lying. Even my sister looked at me weird. We both knew.
So I went downstairs into the garage and I asked her if she hit my bike or she needed to rub up against it to get her bike out. After some prodding she told me yes that she did, then told me no she didn’t and that she just tld me that because that is what I wanted to hear.
Then, a few lies later and some attitude, I told her to go to her room and she was not going outside. I am of course giving the watered down version here. She had an attitude on her, WOW, I was frustrated to say the least.
After a while of her in her room, I told her why I was so upset and that all she needs to do is tell me the truth, no matter what it will always be better than lying.
Then she told me she rub up against my motorcycle with her pants and that she didn’t want to tell me because she knew she would get in trouble. I asked her, for what? For rubbing her pants up against one of my saddlebags that would not get a mark on them by her pants????
She said yes. Then I pointed out to her how much more trouble she got into now that she lied. If she told me the truth from the beginning she would have been outside playing.
Ugh…
I have spent the past few days reflecting on what I have been doing, how I have been discipling and how I have been spending each moment.
I decided yesterday Anastasia didn’t need to be grounded any more. Now, don’t get me wrong, she had her grounding easy, I was always coming up with chores (easy) and projects for her to complete. I just started thinking, she is WAY smart, she knows what she is doing and I just need to be on toes to watch her doing it.
So, we had a good night, today has been great so far. I love my little girl, always have, always will, just sometimes are more appreciated. :)
There are days that Anastasia uses her smarts to get herself into a LOT of trouble, then ther are other days, like today, she is on it.
Today she woke up, we ate breakfast and I had Anastasia start her chores. I added a few things today that would make her think and keep her busy for a while.
She is using her head and making this day a great day.
Each night before Anastasia goes to sleep we talk a few minutes about whatever. Since she has been grounded we have talked about her lying, school work and her attitude. Last night I explained to her how much I disliked putting her on the wall and her being grounded in general.
She is on Christmas break, we should be goofing off all day and go on day trips to different places. Instead, she is grounded. Let me tell you. Grounding her I think is worse on me. I’m a kid at heart. Her and I play video games and goof off all the time. And that was the topic of the conversation last night.
It seems like the conversation sunk in because we are having a good day so far.
I just hope it stays this way, because secretly I want her off punishment by the end of the week.
Christmas vacation for Anastasia. It breaks my heart that she is grounded. I had ideas for road trips and plenty of other things I wanted to do with her while she had her three weeks off.
Although here we are three days into her vacation and she is showing no signs of learning and getting off this grounding any earlier. I really don’t have specifics, just in general.
She is still pressing the boundaries and what she thinks she can get away with.
Hopefully things will change. Tomorrow I am heading over to my fathers. At least we will get out of the house for a few hours.
On Friday I got a call from the Assistant Principal from Anastasia’s school. She told me that Anastasia was found ditching class and that she was going to have after school suspension (or something like that) on Monday.
My first thought was, “WHAT?!?!?!” Then I asked the principal did she she know WHY Anastasia decided to ditch school? She told me that Anastasia was trying to clean her sneakers, took waay too long and they found her outside sitting on a curb.
Ok, now this makes more sense….Let me explain..
Anastasia called my earlier that day telling me her sneakers got dirty and she was trying to clean them, although she didn’t want to wear them anymore that day because they were dirty. I told her she needed to go back to class. I would not be brinning her new snearkers and that school was NOT a place to worry about dirty sneakers, we can deal with that when she got home. She didn’t like my answer.
When Anastasia got home, I drilled her about what happened. Turns out she got permission to go clean her sneakers, although a friend that went with her did not. They both were gone for a longer time than the teacher thought they should have been and when the teacher found them, they were sitting on a curb because Anastasia was having trouble getting her the sneaker on.
Now, I know you are probably thinking what I was thinking when she told me all this. I was trying to figure out if she was lying, although although everything she said made sense. Everything she said fit in with who she is and what priorities are in her head. So, I knew she was actually telling me the truth.
I told her she was grounded for the entire weekend and Monday until the after school stuff was served and she was done with it. She got upset. Then I told her because she didn’t try to lie she was not grounded for Saturday or Sunday.
We hugged. Life is good.
