House Arrest - Oh Noooooo!!!!

For the first time ever, in almost 16 years, I had a parent call me and complain about my son. I’m not saying which son, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to figure it out.

And while I am going to tell you the story, first I’m going to do some bragging. Every single time my boys have been over at someone else’s house, I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. How they’re so polite and helpful and respectful. How they’re just a pleasure to have around. And how they’re welcome back, anytime! And when you hear this kind of stuff, you wonder if they’re talking about your kid, the same one who isn’t like that at home.

But all that changed this weekend.

It would appear that a trampoline cannot handle three kids bouncing on it. All three of them bouncing at different times, trying to send one of the others up so high that they could probably do a somersault over the safety netting. Bouncing so much that there was constant stress on the springs and the legs. Bouncing so hard that the springs give way and the legs buckle.

And when this happens, the trampoline is considered broken.

Then the parent calls to complain about your kid. And you’re speechless. Because you’ve never been put in this position before, so of course you don’t know what to say. All kinds of things go through your head, like, “Are you talking about my son?” “Are you calling the right parent?” “My son did this? This is so out of character for him” and so on and so on. And the conversation ends with the parent telling you that your son is no longer welcome back to their home. And you still don’t know what to say.


Because this has never happened to you before!

And then you have to have the “talking to” with the boy. Try and get to the bottom of what happened, why? where were your brains? did you not think that something like this might happen? and on it goes. You know, the "respecting other people's thing" angle, the "it's not your's to break" angle.... And then, you make your kid phone the parent and apologize for their behaviour and explain just what happened, from their perspective.

And you just know that this is the hardest thing in the world for your kid to get through.

And you smile.

And then you realize that punishment for his actions will result in some type of house arrest for the next week or so and you realize that this could be the hardest thing in the world for you to get through.


And you're no longer smiling.

However, having the parent of the broken trampoline call you later that night and thank you for having your son phone to apologize for breaking his stuff, and pointing out that the other kid involved in this fiasco hasn’t bothered to call and do the same, nor has his own kid even said sorry, well, that sort of makes up for the tough time you’ll be having while your kid is house bound.


Oh, and by the way, mine is now welcome back.