I had a completely different topic all picked out and ready to go this morning. Then, last night, Ashley called me with a story that I could not pass up. Her quote last night: "Punishing your children is never fun, but sometimes it is SO funny!!!" Indeed it is. Read on friends, read on...
So there I was trying to decide what to eat for dinner last night. That is a chore in Levelland since there are certain places I dare not go into in uniform. Anyway, I receive a phone call from Ashley informing me that my two older children were in trouble. I expected they had been fighting with each other and one of them tried to lock the other out of the house. No. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Hannah and Cooper had conspired to commit a most heinous crime. Yes, they stole mommy's purse. The good news is that they at least did not attempt to steal money, but instead to retrieve an iPhone.
Ashley said that Hannah and Cooper, who were on the verge of watching that Beiber kid's movie, decided to plan for their "sister sleepover" by covertly taking the iPhone to play games on while they are supposed to be sleeping. How did that work out for them you ask? Not too good friends. Ashley got wise to their act of thievery and stopped them in their tracks. After mommy law took affect and they were found guilty of their crime, the punishment phase had to begin. She called daddy.
So, Ashley gives me the low down and tells me to talk to them. She puts me on speaker phone where I, acting as judge, listen to their pitiful story and determine their punishment. Of course, I had to converse with mommy and after coming to a consensus, we sentence them to no movie and early bedtime. I send them to brush their teeth and on to bed. Ha ha...mommy and daddy 2,384...kids 21. We are winning.
About an hour later I get a message to call home. I talk to Ashley and am told of the recent "fodder" at the homestead. Here is where everything turns funny. Truthfully, had I been home I don't think I could have stayed upset.
Ashley told me that after I talked to them on the phone and while they were brushing their teeth, Hannah and Cooper were crying. After she sent them to bed, Hannah emerges first from the bedroom. She is apparently still crying a bit and tells Ashley, "I have a pain in my stomach." Ashley asked her what was wrong. Hannah, speaking between sobs, replied, "It's guilt."
This child is obviously aware of the guilty feeling in her stomach! What? Ashley said she and Hannah discussed feelings of guilt, why people feel guilty, and quite likely went into Jung's and Erikson's views of it all and how they compare and contrast. Then, Cooper enters the scene. She is upset as well but offers a solution to the problem at hand...a prayer for forgiveness.
Cooper informs Ashley that she wants to pray for forgiveness, and she and Hannah drop to their knees in front of her. Ashley told me that Cooper begins to confess to her crime and asks God to forgive them. Then she continues on, rambling about something that eventually, was unrelated to the issue. Cooper turns to Hannah and tells her that it is her turn to pray. Hannah retorts that she has nothing to say and they begin to argue about praying...while THEY WERE PRAYING! I don't know how she held it together because, I would have been laughing by that point. So, she praises them for their attitudes about the whole thing and a teachable moment was had, and capitalized on. Ashley sent them to bed, but we are not done.
Ashley hears conversation coming from the bedroom. She sneaked over and listened in on the discussion. Cooper told Hannah that God would likely not forgive her because she did not pray about it. Then shortly after that she thinks about it, backs up on her original statement and tells Hannah, "I think because I said 'WE,' you might be covered." Greatness.
This is one of those moments as a parent I know I missed out on and wished I had not. As I think about it I know that yes, kids will be kids. They will make bad choices and misbehave. they will try to steal mommy's phone and lock their siblings out of the house. Also, they know when they do wrong and have the capability to actually feel bad about it. And the fact that, even as funny as it was, one of them wanted to pray about it shows we are teaching them good lessons and they remember. It is good to know that we are not failing as parents and completely messing up our children. Well, we are not messing them up TOO badly anyway.
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