The Sleepover She Will Always Remember

Hopefully.

Did you guys see the cute pictures of Rylie and Peyton and their sleepover fun? Those were taken last Saturday night, after I agreed to let Rylie's best friend Peyton spend the night with us. Peyton's parents were having a party, so we decided to have her over and have a little party of our own.

We started the evening out with dinner at Chili's, and then came home to get the sleepover madness started. The girls played for a while (mostly dress up), jumped on the air mattress like it was a trampoline, and then got ready for bed. We let them stay up late to watch a movie, and they finally dozed off around midnight.

I thought since they went to bed so late that they would sleep in on Sunday morning. Boy was I wrong!

When I first heard them trampling around like elephants upstairs, I looked at my clock and saw that it was only 7:30. That's just way too early on a Sunday morning for me! They were playing nicely, yet loudly, so I figured they were just trashing Rylie's room and I went back to sleep.

About an hour later I heard the shower running upstairs. I flew out of bed and up the stairs to find both girls in the shower. Fine. Whatever. Rylie needed a shower and her hair washed anyway, so I told Rylie to wash her hair while she was in there. On the way into the bathroom I noticed the mess that was Rylie's room, but didn't pay too much attention to it. When I walked back out of the bathroom and saw what made most of the mess, I felt steam boiling up in my body.

Rylie had gotten this Crayola Model Magic Jewelry Studio for her birthday, along with a metallic bonus pack. It has been sitting on our table since her birthday, so a few days ago I told her I was putting it in her closet and we would get it out later on in the summer and make some jewelry together. It had an age of 6+ on the packaging, so I figured it might be a little "old" for her right now anyway. She knows when something gets put away in her closet that she is not allowed to get it out without asking.

So what did those two girls do bright and early in the morning? They got out the jewelry maker. They destroyed the box, opened the packages of clay, had all of the plastic jewelry pieces strewn about, and opened the bottle of glitter glue (or whatever it was...I never did see all of the contents up close) and decided to just throw it down while glue went all over her carpet.

Once I saw THAT mess, I lost it. I went back in the bathroom, ripped open the shower curtain and gave both of them an earful. I had just gotten up, so I'm sure I looked like a stark raving lunatic with my bed head and my eyes still half shut. I honestly wanted to yank those two fools out of the shower and beat them senseless, but I didn't. By that time, Brian had come up to see what was going on, so I left him up there and went back downstairs to cool off some.

After I brushed my teeth and hair, I went back upstairs. Rylie and Peyton were out of the shower, and Brian was in Rylie's room with a garbage bag, a roll of paper towels and the carpet cleaner stuff. The girls got dressed and then got the pleasure of sitting on the couch to think about what they did while I made breakfast.

Looking back, it wasn't THAT big of a deal (well, except for the now stiff sections of carpet where Brian wasn't able to get the glue out), but Rylie KNEW she wasn't supposed to get into that, and she did it anyway. Well, she let her friend get it out for her. Brian heard this excerpt of their conversation in the shower:

Rylie: Peyton, you were the one who got that out.
Peyton: I know, but I don't want to get in trouble.
Rylie: Well I will just tell my mom that I did it.

Peyton ended up fessing up to getting it out when her mom asked her who did it, but it didn't matter, Rylie sat back and watched her do it, then joined in on the mess making.

See, the problem is that we aren't really tough disciplinarians around here. My kids rarely do anything horrible, so they aren't punished often. They get in time out for fighting or talking back, but that's about the extent of punishments. They do get away with more than I would like to admit, though. So obviously Rylie wasn't worried about getting into trouble, and I knew she needed a punishment that would help her learn a lesson.

I asked her what she thought her punishment should be and she first suggested "take a movie away". WHAT!?!?! ONE MOVIE? Then she said "take my lipstick away." Again, stupid. So I said "No, I was thinking more like no TV after bath time for a week." That's when the tears started. I knew then that would be the perfect punishment.

When Sunday evening came and Rylie was taking her bath, she asked if she could watch TV. When I told her no and reminded her of her punishment, we talked about what she had done and why she was being punished. I explained to her that she knew she wasn't supposed to get that kit out, and of course she said that Peyton did it. I then explained that it didn't matter WHO did it, because she knew it wasn't supposed to come out, and she should have told her friend not to get it out. I also told her that she can't just do what her friends want her to do, and that she needs to always do the right thing. Look at that, another hidden lesson. ;-) She went to bed without too much of a fuss, and handled it pretty well.

Rylie has been very good this week. Every night after her bath she asked if she could watch TV, and got the same answer every night, which then turned into a discussion about the lessons she learned. I decided last night that she had indeed learned a lesson, so I lifted the punishment. She came downstairs to give me a hug, asked if she could watch TV, and I asked her what lesson she learned about the incident Saturday morning. She said "I'm not supposed to get stuff out without asking, and if my friends do something they shouldn't do, I should tell you."

She got to lay down on the couch and watch TV with Bryce last night, and life was good again.

Hopefully she will always remember that sleepover, and the lessons she learned from it. Because next time, a week with no TV will seem like a walk in the park compared to what her punishment will be!

Have you had to give your kid(s) an extended punishment? What did they do to deserve it?