I raised a Juvenile Delinquent

Just a few minutes ago I took a call from the principal of Big Sister’s school.  Trust me, when you hear, “I am calling from Big Sister’s School” the first thing that runs through your mind is “is she hurt?”  But principals make these calls all the time so that was also her next sentence.  Big Sister is fine.  However she is now taken to tagging her environment.

Big Sister likes to write.  She writes on anything she can get her hands on.  She used to draw a lot but now it is mostly writing her name, her sister’s name, our names, any sign see sees on the road, etc.  She is always carrying around a pen or pencil.  So today she must have run out of paper and thought the back of the bus seat was a good place to write her name.

The principal told me that she went to Big Sister’s class and took her into the hallway.  She asked if Big Sister knew who the principal was, then she asked if Big Sister had written on the bus seat.  Big Sister said yes and burst into tears.  My daughter is very hard on herself.  She is also very sensitive about making mistakes.  I have NO IDEA where she got that from…it must have been her mother’s side.    The principal said it took her almost 20 minutes to calm Big Sister down (that sounds about right).  Big Sister also complained about a boy bothering her on the bus….but neither the principal or I think that is a real event.  We are going to keep checking in on it, but Big Sister is good at deflecting attention and changing the subject when possible.

Anyway, now the bus driver wants to chat with Big Sister and me.  The principal is going to try to redirect the bus driver and state that the conversation with me was sufficient.  I sure hope so because trying to have a worthwhile conversation with a person who’s only concern is that their bus was damaged while other kids watch, my kid cries, and the bus rumbles is really not conducive to a learning experience.

I still have to chat this over with Wifey but my feeling is that Big Sister has had enough punishment.  She is going to have to ride the bus with the bus driver today…that will be hard, she had to chat with the principal…and she is always so proud at how ‘good’ she is at school, and she isn’t going to have any writing implements at school anymore.  Of course, any further misbehavior will be met with swift removal of television and computer usage.  That will make a big difference in her days.  I think we’ll save the “go to your room” for something more dire than writing on the back of a bus seat.  Isolation from the rest of the family is probably the worst punishment we can deliver for this little girl.

Kids make mistakes.  I have no idea what she was thinking when she wrote on the bus seat.  But knowing my daughter she is already a basket case about this and will only get worse on the ride home.  it’ll be made clear to her that she did something wrong and that there are consequences for those actions, but she’s also going to know that all the people who talked about it with her today still care very much about her and still like her very much.

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