Old Post: A lesson on Being home on time

Old post from 5/18/2010.

This afternoon, Allie and her friend had a play date, and I asked her to make sure to be home by 4:30 the latest.  She has tennis lessons at 5, and usually she needs to be ready to go at 4:45 so she could be there on time.  At 4 p.m. they came back home, but sneaked back out to sell cookies.  No worries.  I don't worry about those two together. They're good.  But for sure I thought she would be back by 4:30.  Like she does always.

Not today.  4:30 rolled around and she wasn't home.  I was starting to worry that she wouldn't be home on time for tennis.4:45 came and sure enough her ride shows up and still no Allie! So I explain that Allie isn't home in time to go to tennis, so she can just go without her, and Allie can be grounded for two weeks.  It just came out of my mouth just like that.  I am sure at this point she was thinking, "what? two weeks for this?"  She asked if she should wait for a few minutes.  I said no.   She was supposed to be home 20 minutes ago, and she still isn't, so to just go.  Then, I added, maybe she didn't want to go to tennis, and she's purposefully late.  She adds, well, you're the mom, you know her the best. I agreed.

Just as she started getting ready to pull out of our driveway, I decided to look way far and lo and behold there is Allie and her friend strolling with a wagon behind them.  I motion for them to come hurry.  I don't think they could hear me, but they could see me.  As they got about 7 houses away, I yelled, "Hurry, Allie!"   It is now 4:50 p.m. and she really needs to hurry.  So I yell that her ride is here.  She finally hears me, and comes running back to the house.  She still has to go grab her tennis shoes.  She comes out and she doesn't know where her racquet is.  Luckily I know where it is and tell her it is in the mop closet.  So she goes back in the house and gets it.  She is off to tennis, finally.

She got home from tennis and we started talking about what happened.  I found out she was having too much fun that she completely forgot about tennis.  No plans to ditch at all.  A quick talk about why she should be home on time next time followed. Then we laughed about the fact that she almost got grounded for two weeks.  But, surprisingly, she said, "Maybe not two weeks, but I can be grounded for one day!"

She and her friend made over $5 selling the cookies, I heard.  No wonder she forgot about tennis.