Last night, my daughter, Katie posted the following comment on her Facebook page: All I want is to be able to watch American Horror Story tonight, but NO! Thats only for people whose parents let them stay up past 10..Im done with this family------feeling fed up with this crap. So here is my response: My Dear Kate, Since you have made the decision to publicly air your disgruntled thoughts about your parents in a very public forum: Facebook, I am now compelled to respond to your very public complaints in the same manner. Here are my thoughts: Bedtime at 10PM means 10PM. Most mornings you rush around the house cranky and complaining that its everyones fault but your own that you have to run out the door to catch your ride to school. It is quite clear to me that you are not getting enough sleep at night. Hence, your fathers and my rule of the 10PM bedtime. Next, last evening when you were reminded you could record the show and watch it when you got home from school, that wasnt good enough for you. You (quite indignantly) announced you were not going to sleep until 11PM anyway and reminded your dad and I how ridiculous we were for not allowing you to watch your show. Next, you blatantly broke the house rule of no technology after 10PM. If you refer to your original post, it was clearly posted after 11PM when you let everyone know you believe you have parents who expect you to put up with their crap. Kate, for someone with your brain power, do you really expect there will be no consequence for your bad decision-making you demonstrated lastnight? Surely you know your dad and I well enough to know we do not tolerate outright defiance. So.........heres what going to happen: After you read this post, I expect you to turn in all your technology to me. It appears to me your technology needs to go into time-out. That includes your phone, laptop and anything else you have that connects you to your cyber world. Im certain your friends will understand that if they want to talk to you, they will need to do it the old-fashioned way.....they can call you on our house phone. Next, because you openly defied us by staying up later than 10PM and were soooo smug about it, you can now consider your new bedtime to be 9:30PM. I was going to make it 9, but Im feeling a little soft. In addition, you can consider yourself grounded from social activities for awhile. Im not sure how long just yet...that will depend on your attitude. Finally, my sweet sweet Kate....you need to know there are consequences for the decisions you make in this world. If you expect to get your drivers license, go out in cars with friends, date, etc, anytime in the near future, we need to be able to trust that you will make good decisions. Last night you made a poor decision. I am confident you will find a way to be wiser because of the mistake you made and learn from it. Please know your father and I love and cherish you more than you can imagine.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:27:04 +0000