"Whereas Canada is founded upon principles..."

I have made many critical parenting mistakes over the years.  I'm not proud; no one told me the rules.  Most of these errors in judgement can be traced back to my idealistic thoughts on how one should raise a human being which, to be honest, were developed prior to me actually reproducing.

That's right, I was the perfect parent until I actually had a child.

One of these stupid ideas was that a child should be able to, with respect, express his or her opinions in any circumstance.  Yes, children should be able to share their opinions:  translation; talk back.  I'm an idiot.

I thought that by encouraging this free flow of perspective, I would be raising the next Nelson Mandela or Rachel Carson; encouraging the flourishing of their self-worth so that they would always be able to stand up for themselves and their beliefs.

Or, more realistically, I would fail to curb the inane, self-righteous rantings of an egomaniacal teenaged girl.

Taryn-the-16-year-old-girl is currently grounded; for life.

A brief overview of the circumstances will most certainly justify my position.

At times, I  have to leave town for work, to teach, learn, participate, have a date, whatever.  I have been a shift worker forever and single-parenting for years.  With some fairly strict guidelines rules, my children are quite adept at staying on their own for a few days at a time.

Rule #1:  No one will be in the house except those who live here and any required emergency service personnel, at all, ever.

Misinterpretation of rule #1 resulted in six of Taryn's close, personal friends and their friends in my house post-hot tub party around one in the morning, slightly inebriated.  Things went missing, Taryn told me that someone had broken into the house while she was innocently sleeping, I called the police, the truth trickled out over the subsequent two weeks.  That's the Reader's Digest version and much less painful than what I went through, trust me.

Children who were raised appropriately would be scuttling around under the radar; housecleaning, doing homework,  getting along with siblings, sucking up.  Not my girl!

Taryn has vehemently cited human rights and freedoms, fair retribution according to a jury of her peers and statistics addressing incidents most likely to destroy  mother-daughter relationships.

My life is so unfair.

Comments

[Laurie Pawlick]

So...Taryn is grounded until she moves out? lol..thank god she will marry young.

[Denise]

And err my turn to go off topic... you've been tagged: http://flamingohouse.net/?p=1447