YOU NEED TO PUNISH ME!

Funny Story...

I left work early on a Friday afternoon so Dan and I could take the kids to see a movie. We were planning on seeing the Tooth Fairy, with Dwayne the "Rock" Johnson. Jaxson was especially looking forward to this. I left work later than I wanted to, as always and called Dan to tell him I was on my way home and to get the kids ready. Well instead of getting the kids ready they were off playing with friends and we had to go round them up.

We weren't sure where Jaxson was playing; however the next door neighbors told us he was at Dylan's house. When we went there, nobody answered. Dan even called out to the back yard to make sure they weren't playing outside and didn't hear the doorbell ring. He received no response, so we left and began our search for Jaxson. We started calling other neighbors and driving and around, nobody had seen him and he was no where to be found. We dropped Reagan off at my parents house anyway and continued to look for Jaxson. About 20 minutes later we went back over to Dylan's house and he had been there the entire time. They just didn't answer when Dan called out to them. Dan told Jaxson to go home and told him he was in trouble.

By this time we had already missed the movie (which we had purchased tickets for), so we went to pick Reagan back up and take her home. My parents were kind enough to offer to babysit her later so we could still catch the show, but we weren't sure if rewarding Jaxson at this point was a good idea. Jaxson then called us while we were picking up Reagan from his friend Jacob's house, asking if he could go to Karter's. Dan replied by saying "What are you doing at Jacob's? You are supposed to be home. You are in trouble for not letting us know where you were." We went back to the theater and explained our situation with our son and they were kind enough to give us a credit for our tickets.

As we arrived back home, Jaxson was in his bed sleeping (because he knew he was in trouble). At that time Dan and I had decided to go to the later show, because we didn't want to sit home on a Friday night and do nothing, so I went upstairs to talk with Jaxson about what had happened over the last hour and a half.

I woke him up and asked him if he knew why he was in trouble? He stated it was because he didn't tell us where he was going. I agreed and also explained to him that the reason it is a problem is because I love him and I worry about him. I told him it is about being safe! Not knowing where he is is scary and he always needs to let us know where he is going.

I gave him a hug and told him I forgave him. I then asked him if he wanted to go to the movie and he told me "No, because I needed to punish him." I responded with "What if I am done punishing you?" he stated that he shouldn't go to the movie because he got in trouble.

He honestly was not going to go to the movie because he thought he shouldn't due to his actions. It was so cute that I had to try not to laugh out loud. What a sweet boy to know when he had done something wrong and needed to face the consequences of his actions. At that point I really wanted to take him to the movie. We talked some more about safety and forgiveness then after some convincing he decided to join us for the movie.