Getting Out of the Slammer

Today, Beth is being released from “prison.” She has been grounded since last Friday, when the final straw broke the camel’s back. In the course of one week, we found out she had been drinking at sleepovers, smoking (again), she failed two classes for the year and then she went somewhere without telling me first. This was after I had specifically and clearly instructed her to “TELL ME BEFORE YOU GO ANYWHERE,” and warned her of the consequences of any more “shenanigans.” When I called her on her cell phone, to her credit she did not lie to me and told me where she was….but her reason for not telling me beforehand, “I didn’t think you’d let me go”. She was basing this on the fact that earlier in the day I did say no to the same location. The River Lot. (Everyone in Williamsport owns a river lot. It is a huge summer pastime here….going to the river lot) The first request was to go “night swimming.” Beth, her 15 year old friend, Abbi, and Abbi’s 17 year old step sister. No adults, just the three of them and perhaps “a few other people”, in the dark, in a woodsy area, in bikinis. Ahhhhhhhh…..that’s a classic no brainer there. Absolutely NOT!!! So when I called Beth (who was supposedly just “hanging out at Abbi’s) on my way home from work….no answer. Called again….no answer. So then I called Abbi’s cell phone. She answered. “Where are you guys?” I asked when Beth came to the phone. “At the River Lot.” Totally different scenario. Daytime. Adult present. I would have given her permission to go. But there was the deception again. So I grounded her for a week.

She is a model prisoner. She does not complain much. She is pleasant. I enjoy having her around. No sullen, angry, belligerent teen. She is nice. She is the girl she might be full time if I could woo her away from her friends who think passing around a bottle of vodka at a sleepover and hard rock bands and the “F” word are cool. In a similar vein to yesterday’s entry….I suppose God looks at me (when I grieve his heart) and sees the person I might be….the person I will be when he is finished with me. Pleasant….not angry….not sullen or belligerent. Nice. If God is not going to give up on me….I’m not giving up on Beth. I love her so much. But today, with great reluctance and trepidation on my part, she is getting “out of the slammer.”