Saturday, October 06, 2007

Made Myself Chuckle Inwardly This Morning

After coming home from the YMCA this morning I saw Ricardo lying on the couch. Now I know you don't hear much about him as he kind of blends into the background, but last weekend he really messed up. Let me explain.

Salinda and a couple of her friends spent Friday night unsupervised. The woman who owned the trailer they were in thought it would be fine -- she trusted her daughter to make good choices. This was the same daughter who, the next night, was arrested as a 14 year old for speeding in our vehicle....but we were all hopeful. All three of the girls gave us a major guilt trip and used the "we really want a chance to prove we can be trusted." OK, so I'm an idiot and let her.

Apparently that night there was some wild party and that night they made a plan with Ricardo and his two 12 year old friends. That night the boys were spending the night with a friend and they told him the following morning that Sadie was at a friends house where parents were there and asked the dad to drive the three of them to Sadie's friend's house. The dad stopped by the house and told Ricardo to come in and let me know what was going on. He came in and said not a word to me. In fact, I didn't even know he had stopped by.

So, the dad, in good faith, dropped the boys off where they spent at least 3 hours unsupervised with the girls. I don't think much happened, but both Salinda and Ricardo reported that they were only there for 5 minutes until Salinda told them they had to leave. Later I found the truth -- which was reported as 2-3 hours. My guess is it was more like 5 or 6, but I'll go with three. That night the two friends were in the stolen car. Fortunately, Ricardo was here.

I told Ricardo he was grounded because he had lied to be and been somewhere without adult supervision for several hours. Last night was homecoming, however, and he is genuinely well behaved 99% of the time, so I told him he could go to the game. I asked who he was spending time with and he told me it would be a nice kid that I know of at school. I told him I didn't want him with the two boys he was with last weekend.

Of course, that's who he spent the whole game with... the ones he was supposed to stay away from. SO.... I was reminding him this morning that he was grounded. Sadie and her two friends were standing in the living room and as I began to lecture Ricardo they froze in motion (it was really quite funny). I looked up and saw three sixth grade girls, bagels poised half way between their plates and their mouths, standing still watching the event.

When I finished explaining to Ricardo that he would not be going to the college football game tonight because he chose to disobey last night, the first thing he said was, "Why can't I go to the game?"

Instantly the words flew into my mind. I looked up at the girls and said, "Is there anyone in our studio audience who does not understand why Ricardo is grounded?"

I've been chuckling about it ever since. I don't know that anyone else even got it, but I really cracked myself up today.

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