We grounded our 12.75 year-old.

Never say never. 

If you read my article a few weeks ago called GROUNDED! (Check it out in the archives), you know that I don’t particularly “believe” in “grounding” and I did my very best, Super-people, to find the “yogic alternative.”

Key words being “my very best.”

LOL.

Clearly, Madison’s and my Spirit had different plans.

The events that transpired after I wrote “Grounded” Part One indicated nothing other than it was time to…rein it in, my Sisters.

I won’t reiterate the events because that’s paddling upstream and somewhat humiliating to my girl  (as is me doing pretty much anything at this point—LOL), but suffice it to say, this Super-mom had complete and total clarity—grounding was the way to go.

“Well, she’s grounded,” I said calmly, “that much is totally clear,” I continued as Philippe breathed a sigh of relief.

He’d been saying she needed to be grounded for a while now, although I continuously begged to differ.

And we (almost) never disagree.

An interesting thing happened when I told Madison she was grounded.

I did so calmly, attempting to not leave the vortex while doing so, and she smiled and seemed relieved and happy.

RELIEVED and HAPPY, Super-people!

Then she began chatting with me about what this grounding entailed, when it was going to happen, etc.

And then she began…NEGOTIATING.

The work of a tween/teen:  endless negotiation.

Ahhhhhh, I smiled as she asked if we could put it off a week because it was the end of the school year, after all.

I naively agreed (while Philippe laughed, shook his head in disbelief, and walked out of the room), making a “grounding schedule” that worked for Madison.

HUGE LOL.

Yes, this is my first time navigating the tween and soon-to-be teen years, Super-people, and I’m finding my way.

Just as I was “over the top” when I was a first-time Super-mom with “just Madison,” I seem to be doing my share of “learning” as I navigate these choppy tween parenting waters as well.

You know what happened, right?

She was almost psyched about the grounding…until we actually began implementing it.

“I’m grounded today?!  But so and so wants me to go to the beach in Plymouth!  Can we do it a different day, Mommy?” she begged.

(Whenever there’s a “Mommy” involved, you KNOW she’s in negotiating mode—LOL).

“No, hon, I’m sorry.  You’re grounded.  That means you can’t join your friends.  That’s the whole point,” I explained.

She continued.  On and on.  Negotiating, begging, sometimes with drama and sometimes without.

Finally, I remarked to Philippe in disbelief:  “How can she continue to ask me the same question?!  How can she continue to beg?”

“Because you’ve never had real consequences,” he explained sweetly.  “She’s not used to this.”

Could this be true?

Had I always been consequence-free?

Perhaps I had, I reflected.

Because I really hadn’t HAD to—follow through with consequences.

The stakes hadn’t been this high and she’d always been such a great kid.

Not that she still isn’t.  Now she’s just a great kid doing her developmental duty—to test the **** out of her parents.

So I asked her, “Honey, tell me why this is so difficult for you, besides the obvious (that you can’t be with your friends).”

“Well, it’s a little confusing, Mom, because you’ve never had consequences.  You’ve always just talked to me about what happened, taught me the lesson, and then let it go.  Because you’re a yogi,” she said, inserting a deep pain into my heart and pit in my stomach as she spoke.

Ahhhhh, she’d been reading the same Psych book as her Papa. 

LOL.

And she knew EXACTLY what to say to push this Super-mom’s buttons.

Have I stuck to her “grounding?”

Yes, I have.

We just finished day three.  Four to go.

And the grounding experience is just about as painful—and rife with learning and growth–for this Super-mom as it is for her tween.