Yesterday's mini rage

Yet again, I'm falling behind on my blogging. Yesterday Hannah went to her friend's house on her bike and was told to be home by 5:30. Since she didn't have a watch and she broke the screen on my cell phone, I figured she might not think to ask anyone the time, so I told her that as soon as it started to get dark, even a tiny bit, it would be 5:30 and she had to come home.

6:00 rolled around and I had to leave to get Shauna to her 6th grade orientation night and to bring Alex's dress shoes and socks to the same event, as he had stayed after for play practice and his choir group was singing at the orientation. Hannah was nowhere to be found. I called her friend's house and her sister told me that they were outside somewhere. I drove over and she still wasn't there, so I drove to the apartment complex next door, where they usually hang out. Sure enough, there was a big group of kids standing on the corner, talking, and one of them was Hannah. I started to brace myself, not knowing how she would act. I knew she would be mad that I picked her up in front of her friends, since she gets embarrassed very easily. I also knew that she would be furious that she now had to go with me to the school because I didn't have time to drop her off at home.

Well, I was right on all of the above. I told her that she was grounded for two days for not coming home when she was told. She went into hysterics and screamed that she didn't know what time it was, didn't know that it was dark, wasn't her fault, one more chance, etc. All the usual nonsense. I told her the grounding stayed and I wasn't going to discuss it any more. She hit me twice, trying to get me to engage. I was driving at the time, but luckily the school is only a couple of minutes away. Once we got there, she had to stop raging because she was afraid someone she knew might see her. She was still obviously mad at me, but she controlled herself. Her teacher was there and came over and told me how fantastic she is doing in school, so that helped quite a bit with her bad mood. Then she saw some kids she and Shauna know and really like, so that helped, too. I was still afraid of what would happen when we got back in the car and when we got home.

Alex sang with his choir group and they were wonderful! This is a smaller choir than the general one and the highest level choir at the school. Only 3 or 4 boys were there, so I could really pick out his voice. The sang the National Anthem.

Back to my story, after we were done at school, we headed home. As soon as we got in the car, Hannah started bugging me about letting her off her grounding again. She had lost most of her steam, however, so it wasn't too bad. She didn't hit and we managed to get home in one piece. Same for after we got home. She bugged me a bit, but since we got home at about 7:30 and she is usually asleep by 8:00, she really only had time to eat and go to bed.