Grounded

The kids are grounded for what I believe is the first time ever. There's a creek behind our neighbor's houses, and four or five houses from ours there's a little sidewalk that leads to it. Last weekend we were all outside, and they went down there without telling me. I saw their bicycles there and walked down to tell them not to go down there without telling me first. Then Thursday I was sitting on the front porch while they played in the driveway. I was reading a magazine, and I noticed I couldn't hear them talking anymore. I looked up, didn't see them, and figured they had gone to the backyard to visit the dogs. I waited a few minutes before going to the backyard and discovering they weren't there. Next I checked the house, and when I didn't find them there I walked back out to the front yard. At that point I heard their voices again and saw them walking down the street toward our house, coming from the creek.

Tapping my foot, hands on hips, I waited. They were still happy and oblivious, ready to tell me about something they had seen at the creek when I hit them with "you're grounded." I explained why, and I think it sounded a lot like this: "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Ryan apologized profusely for leaving without telling me, and Mira cried "I don't want to be grounded!!" When I asked her if she even knew what grounded meant, she had to reply "no." She spent another five minutes or so begging me not to ground her, saying she'd never step foot out of our yard without me again and there was no need to ground her. I told her "call it whatever you like, but you're grounded," to which she very dramatically replied "well, I don't accept it." May I remind you, again, that the child is seven years old.

A week or so ago, when she was upset at Ryan for something, she told me she didn't like it when he tried to apologize/talk to her/cheer her up. She said "I can't possibly laugh when I'm still in MISERY!"

I don't know where she gets this flare for drama.