Parly Sue

Parly Sue is 8..... wait did I say 8? Wow... seems more like 15. She is growing up so fast. Sooo, Parly has always been very social. I don't think it is possible for her to go a day without seeing or talking to one of her bazillion friends. Because this is the case, we have found the perfect punishment for her when she gets into trouble... no friends. Yep. She can't stand it.

Well, we have been trying to instill in her the importance of being responsible. She has to tell us where she is going and where she is if plans have changed. She also has to be home on time ...usually at 5:30 p.m. She has her own watch and she set the alarm for 5:25 so she has enough time to get home. Our rule: If she is in the door after 5:30, no friends the next day.

She hasn't been late very many times. In the beginning, if she was going to be late one of her friend's mom would call and say that Parly was on her way home and that she (the mom) had lost track of the time... so it wasn't Parly's fault. I've always wondered if Parly got so upset about being late that these moms thought going home late meant she was getting a beating. Well, we discussed this and decided that it was not the mom's responsibility to send Parly home at the right time. This worked for a little while, until the weather got nicer and they would play outside, thus ...the excuse became I was outside and didn't know what time it was. So that's where the wrist watch came in. And with the watch... no problems. It has been fun to see her bursting into the door, out of breath, but on time.

Well, the other day we had our first issue since getting the watch for Christmas. She forgot to wear her watch. Parly came home 3 minutes late. Sad. Yes, I know 3 minutes. Late none-the-less. No friends tomorrow. Then came the pleading and tears. Sorry. Then came the anger and excuses. "I left when the clock said 5:25." We called Kendra's mom. What does your clock say? Okay, thanks. Sorry still late. "I left when Kendra's watch said 5:25." Called Kendra at another friends house. What does your watch say? Still late, sorry. We called to see what their clocks said thinking maybe the times would be different. Nope. Well this was Thursday. And on Friday she had a birthday party (she had already RSVP-ed to) and then a primary activity to go to. And then on Saturday another birthday party to go to. So... we told her that she would be grounded from playing with friends on Friday and Saturday. Later that night her friend called to see if she could help babysit at a neighbor's. We said yes, only because we thought this would be another chance to learn about responsibility. She had a choice : go babysitting but you will still grounded on Friday and Saturday, or don't go babysitting and no grounding. She chose to go babysitting. It turned out that they waited but weren't able to actually babysit. Of course, Parly then called and asked if she could go to her friend's sister's basketball game since she wasn't able to babysit. What? No. Come home. Tears. Why? Where do we begin, right? Well here's the letter she wrote us that night.

Like I said Parly Sue is 15 years old.