TUESDAY AFTERNOON
We sat across from each other at the kitchen table.
“Look at the bright side, mom. At least I make your life
interesting,” Josh said, making absolutely no effort to suppress the smirk that
played at the corner of his mouth.
“Bud, I could do with
a little less ‘interesting’ in my life.” I sighed and ran a hand over my face. “I
wish you’d stop giving me parenting challenges that I don’t already have a plan
in place on how to handle them!”
Now his grin hit full force. “Hey, at least when I grow up
and have kids, I’ll know what to do.”
I smacked the table and laughed. “Oh, no you won’t! It’s guaranteed
that whatever your kids do, it will be completely different stuff than what you
did!”
TWO HOURS EARLIER
I walked into the kitchen and spotted the blinking light.
Picking up the phone, I played back the message.
“Hello, Mrs. Bowne. This is Ms. Vice Principal at the high
school. Please call me at your earliest convenience.”
Uh-oh.
I picked up my phone and sent an immediate text. “Um…Josh, do
you have any idea why Ms. Vice Principal might be calling me?”
Two minutes later the phone rang.
“Josh?”
“Hi Mom….we got busted.”
THREE-AND-A-HALF WEEKS AGO
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” I said shaking
my head.
“It’s fine, mom.”
“You know there are cameras all over that parking lot and
all around the school.”
“Hence our disguises, Mrs. Bowne,” Josh’s friend said, posing
in his all-black attire for my benefit.
“Plus, we’ll have masks,” Josh waved a black ski mask in
front of my nose.
“I still don’t think-- ”
“Did I ever tell you guys about my high school friend BAD
BOY who removed all the little ringer things from the bells in school? When
they were supposed to go off it was absolutely silent,” Chris said, with a reminiscent
chuckle.
I glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
“Mom, we’ll be fine,” Josh said again. He gave me a quick
hug, and vibrating with excitement the boys headed out the door, shovels in
hand.
I couldn’t completely blame them. But still. For some
reason, our school district decided our holiday break should end Wednesday,
January 2nd. Even though most (if not all?) of our surrounding districts enjoyed
vacation for the rest of that week, not returning to school until January 7th.
My frustrated senior son decided to hit the Internet where
he discovered a school prank called “Make a Snow Day.” The prank involved
sneaking over to school late at night, and piling up snow in front of the doors
so they could not be opened. Nobody would be able to get into the building the
next day, and voilá Snow Day.
Creative sparks bounced around in his brain like I wish they
would when it’s an English paper he’s working on. Excited IM’s flew back and
forth among he and his friends. And at 10:00 p.m. that night, his posse was assembled.
Sure, I could have forbidden him to do it, or taken the car
keys, or sat on everyone with all 5’0” of me. But sometimes, it’s our job as
parents to let our kids experience the real life consequences of their choices.
And so, 3-1/2 weeks later, they did.
Although, I’m still trying to figure out how sleeping in for
three days, having loads of time during the day to finish your homework, then
staying up late at night playing X-Box is a punishment?
