Lesson Learned

You know as a parent you have a "gut-feeling".  I didn't follow mine this weekend and let me say, our entire family learned a lesson. .  Jack got into a bit of trouble over the weekend.  Prank calls (to our house) while at a sleep-over  around 1 am.   On several levels stupid--calling your own house, has he heard of caller ID, and really we just talked earlier that night about knowing when you are doing something wrong.  On Jack's third prank call telling him sternly "Jack.  Do Not Hang Up.  Listen to Me.  You are in big trouble.  Stop misusing the telephone and go to bed now.  Do you understand?"  A "yes" and a click were his response.    This lead me to call the family at 1 am to tell them what these boys were doing.  I was livid that he would behave this way, but also that this was going on at 1am as part of a 10 year old's sleep-over.  At some level I wasn't surprised, I should have known better, this family runs a bit "looser" than I approve of.  So it was a lesson to Jack about behavior and expectations, but a lesson for us to trust our instincts and really control who are children are around.  Jack spent yesterday in his room, no electronics for 2 days, and an apology note to the family (not sure I will actually mail it because I blame them quite a bit) and no allowance.  I wasn't going to even post about this, but I really wanted parents to know.  Trust your gut.   Know who you kids are hanging out with.  And, this may have not been that big of deal in the scheme of things, but it was a big deal to us and a good opportunity to show Jack that behavior like this will not be tolerated.  I told Jack that even though he was in trouble, I love him very much, I am not mad anymore and we just need to get through his punishment and forge ahead.  He apologized.