And Now, the Rest of the Story

[gm2]

Way back on the 20th, my son Ben shinningforce was way mad at his sister Abi
abri_kadabri.  Well things have calmed down enough I think that I can comment on one thing Ben was saying anyways:

"...but then tradgedy stikes in abi's social life when she was home late for dinner and she took that one day of being grounded real hard with the cell phone being gone oh no! (sarcasm)..."

What Ben said is totally true in that Abi was only "grounded" for what amounted to one day. What he isn't saying probably because he doesn't know is that my initial sentence was for at least parts of the punishment to continue until Abi was 16 years old... More than a year away at this point!

So, what had me changing my mind? I try hard not to be one of those parents that gets real mad and says things only to take them back or not follow through on them later. Neither of those are what happened here.

Instead, what happened is that Abi "took that one day of being grounded real hard" like Ben says, but beyond that, she:

1. was genuinely sorry for what she did
2. took ownership of what she had done
3. didn't make any excuses or explanations
4. didn't whine and complain or pout
5. continued talking to us and relating

That's the stuff that had me commuting her sentence so quickly... not anything to do with her being "perfect" or "favored". Next time you get caught doing something wrong, you might want to reconsider your usual way of responding to such things. Could be that you're just making a bad situation way worse for yourself.