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Grounding kid is hard on mom
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Published: January 22, 2009
"You are grounded!"
Even as the words left my mouth, part of me wanted to shove them back in.
Who said that, anyway? It sure sounded like my mom.
But there was no taking it back. My son was grounded, a punishment he'd never managed to earn before in his eight years of life.
He'd had the brilliant idea of acting out a game with his Pokemon cards. Usually, I'm in favor of anything that involves both action and imagination, but this took both a little too far.
The game was Pokemon battle. The person being battled was Ben, the 4-year-old. First he got pushed. Then he got pushed again. Then he got picked up and "body slammed" into the ground.
And that's when Josh got grounded.
By age 8, you should know what can and will happen if you pick up your little brother and "body slam" him. You should know that none of the things that can or will happen are good.
Josh apparently didn't know, so right now — in addition to losing all of his 600 Pokemon cards and his computer time — he's taking the day upstairs, in his room, to think about it.
It was hard to hand down such a severe punishment. As the tears spilled over in his eyes, I wanted to relent and set him free.
But I didn't. Some things are too important to let slide, and tops on that list right now is understanding how badly things could have gone if Ben had hit the ground a little harder or at a different angle.
The best lesson of all may have come from the wounded party, though. Ben wasn't able to watch his hero cry, and begged me to let Josh out of the punishment.
"I forgive him," Ben pleaded, hoping that would be enough.
It didn't get Josh out of his room, but I'm guessing it made his time there a little more uncomfortable.
It can be a hard pill to swallow when your little brother proves to be the bigger person.
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