Monday, May 5, 2008

Early to Bed

I am sitting at my computer where I have been for about an hour and a 45 minutes. That's also how long my children have been in the bed. Since 7:00......I have never put them to bed that early before. But tonight that's all I knew to do. Dave was at Music rehearsal at the church and I was cooking supper. The kids had just had a bath and the night was off to a good start. Everyone was getting their plates and they were going to sit outside in their swing by the trampoline. This was fine with me...so then Erin came in with scissors in hand, I don't really remember what she said, But this is when I found out they had just cut the net off the trampoline. Why does this upset me so much? I think it has to do with their disregard for property(theirs or anyone elses) From what I can tell..... Samuel got the scissors, he and Erin actually did the cutting, but Abby just let them do it. I didn't yell I just told them to finish eating and I sent them to bed. I guess I did not really know what the punishment should be. When things like this happen, I feel like a failure as a parent. I want to know what am I not teaching them. Why would they do that? It may not be so big tomorrow, but right now its huge.

Good night.
Lisa

9 comments:

Xandra@Heart-of-Service said...

YOU are not a failure. You did the right thing by controlling your anger and decided what to do in a calm, rational way. You can deal with the destruction tomorrow.

It's hard when they do things that are completely unexplainable.

Xandra

Lisa said...

Thanks for the encouragement!
Lisa

Carla said...

Lisa,

You are the best mother I know. Don't beat yourself up about this. You set the right examples for your kids and they just had an off night. Remember, we are sinful creatures and sometimes we just do dumb things.....they are wonderful Godly kids.....please remember that. You and Dave are doing a SUPERB job of raising them in the nurturing and admonition of the Lord.

Anonymous said...

I can just see them doing this. I am picturing Erin with scissors cutting the net. Oh me. They're just kids.

John said...

grrr. I would not have been happy with my kids either! What did Dave say?

I guess they have to lose the trampoline privilege now. Maybe they can earn enough to fix the net and learn a lesson as well.....

I agree with Xandra....things are always clearer in the morning, when the anger has subsided a bit!
Stacey

Lisa said...

I was questioning what the punishment should be and Dave seemed to think the fact that they would no longer be able to jump would be punishment enough. I will eventuall fix it but not today. Things were MUCH clearer this morning.

The Davis Family said...

You let them finish eating???
Alicia

Unknown said...

Oh Lisa! I just read this after posting that other comment about wandering what in the world happened to the net. Children never cease to amaze me! You'll look back and laugh at this one day, you know. And at least you didn't send them to bed without dinner. That would have been bad... you did the right thing! 'Be angry & sin not'. You did good girlie! :)

Dave said...

Christy, Jason will remember how long it took to put that net on the trampoline. Putting the trampoline together old school style was easy. The net took like 3 hours. O well, times like this call for duct tape...

Dave

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