She's soooo Grounded!

Lately, our Sweet Little Mimi has turned into a bit of a Monster. I don’t know if it’s because of her recent lack of sleep, raging hormones or just plain orneriness. Whatever it is, she’s going to drive me absolutely nuts. (I just may end up stuffing her in a big box and sending her down to her grandparents!) Anyways, yesterday morning, being at the end of my rope, I told her that she could consider herself “Grounded”.

When I told Shaun about this his only response was to look at me with a blank face and then ask me exactly what being Grounded meant. Hmmm…we’ve never Grounded our kids before so I was at a bit of a loss as to how to answer that. Our girls are usually really good kids and shape up with a couple gentle reminders. (And maybe a few threats to break their toes off) I figured I’d just have to play this one by ear as I so often do.

As soon as Mimi came home from school she wanted to hop on the phone to chat with one of her girlfriends. I calmly reminded her that she was Grounded. After looking puzzled for a moment she simply asked if she could be done being Grounded as she had been being civil all day. I guess she doesn’t really get this being Grounded thing either.

When KT found out that her baby sister was Grounded, she was so excited and impressed. She kept exclaiming that she had never been grounded even though she was a whole two years older. She also begged to know what Mimi had done to no avail. (I hesitate to suggest that KT might have been just a smidge bit jealous.) Apparently a few of KT’s friends have been Grounded as KT started rattling all the things that Mimi had to look forward to. No TV, no phone, no friends, no computer…and on she went until Mimi was practically begging her to stop giving us ideas! (Of course, Mimi had no idea that we hadn’t quite made it all up yet)

So far, Mimi has responded fairly well to being Grounded. I know we’ve only had one day of it, but if this behavior continues, I may not end up sending Mimi down to her grandparents after all!