The theme tonight was grounding. When I picked Roo up at daycare, he told me that he lost all three of his pennies today. Each day each kid in his class starts off with three pennies. I'm not sure what happens if they keep them for the day, if the add up or something like that but it seems that it's upsetting to lose pennies. He's never lost all three of them. Today he told me as we were leaving that he lost all three. As we were getting in the car he explained that it was from talking when he wasn't supposed to and then something else about a pointer.
He said his friend was using the pointer (like a retractable one) and that they weren't supposed to, so he was telling his friend to put it away. So I asked if his friend also got in trouble, yes. I'm having trouble understanding how Roo got in trouble for trying to do the right thing. So I ask him to explain more about the talking. He doesn't explain this too well. So then I ask him again about the pointer. Roo finally says, "okay, I'll tell you the rest of what happened." And he explained how they had a sword fight with the pointers. Of course, you're only in first grade, and you're boys, what else would you do with the pointers is what I was thinking. So what I actually said was that he knows better and that it's dangerous and not to do it again.
Roo asked if he was grounded. He also asked if he was naughty. No to both. Not grounded, Friday ice cream not taken away, and definitely not a naughty kid. This is the second time he's asked me if he's naughty and both times I have told him that he is absolutely not naughty. He's a very good kid, with a big heart, who likes to follow rules, who occasionally has a quarterly brain fart with his behavior. He asked, "so a naughty kid would have just blamed it all on his friend?" I told him that the naughty kid would have just told me he had a good day at school. He knows and we've repeated that we are always proud of him for telling us when he makes a mistake or gets in trouble. If he continues like this, he should be a well behaved teen!!
And so onto Bug. Later in the evening Bug shared something with us and worried that he would be grounded. We asked him to show us and we told him not to worry that he wouldn't be grounded. We explained how he could fix it the next time and to ask for help if he needs to in the future, but that he wouldn't be grounded even if it happened again. The topic is poop, no further details needed.
Man, it sounds like we do a lot of grounding in this house, but we really don't. It's rare and is only for really serious infractions.
