Yesterday was a very good day for me. All of my sports teams won, I spent a nice day with my family and I was all set to have a nice night of just doing nothing for once. Just as my night got going, the door buzzes and my brother calls us downstairs. The door opens and who should stand on the other side of it but a police officer and my teenager. She was at a party on the campus of her school and someone tipped off the police that there were illegal happenings at this party. Those cops went kid by kid and tested each and every one and then set out to return them to their owners. There were drugs going on at this party but the main thing was alcohol and every kid there was underage. The good news is that she swears her drug test is gonna come back negative (and it better, because I know she's smarter than that). The bad news is that she had been drinking and even though she wasn't arrested, she could still get community service for her offense. Apparently she's benefiting from some legal loophole, thank God. But this whole thing has put me in an interesting situation. She's 18 so, technically, she is an adult. If you use that thinking, then what can I really do to her? However, and this is the logic I like, she is still living under my roof so my rules apply and my rules do include not getting arrested. In fact, when she moved in I told her 'don't get arrested and if you do, call so-so and so first'. To her credit, she did call who I told her to. But a near arrest is close enough to enforce my rules. I didn't do anything last night but send her off to her room and try and not think about the whole thing. The Mrs. however has been ready to bring down the hammer from the second the teen walked in the door. After thinking about what woulda happened to me had I been stupid enough to get caught doing what she did, I came to the conclusion that I have to do something. 18 doesn't mean a thing to me, so long as she's in this house. So, as of this morning she's pretty much done seeing the outside except for school and work. Those are the only things she can do until further notice. And the best part...we're going out of the country in a few weeks but my sister-in-law is gonna have nothing but time back here at the house. I never in my life imagined I would have to ground somebody. Especially grounding a teenager when I'm not yet 30 myself. It's weird. It's like our first real test of parental discipline. A teenager and a baby and the teenager is the one we can't turn our backs on for a second...what a life, eh?
