Memorable Monday

Well today I caused some trouble with my extended family. In no way did I mean to cause trouble, but that's how it appeared. So in honor of my wonderful afternoon of working things out, this Memorable Monday is dedicated to memories of getting in trouble as a child.

I don't have too many memories of misbehaving. I know I wasn't a perfect child; I guess I've just blocked out painful memories. I do remember that I didn't get along with my siblings too well. On occasion to defend myself, I would use my nails. I have never been a nail biter or a nail picker, so I had some good length on my nails. This came in quite handy to scratch my siblings. As a punishment, my mom would cut my nails. It would feel so demeaning to have short nails.

One time my brother and I were fighting. I ran into my bedroom to get away from him and slammed the door. He came up and kicked the door. Between our "disagreement," a hole was left in the door from the kicking. We were incredibly lucky and got off the hook because shortly after that, my mom was babysitting some kids who ended up doing some damage to the same door, and their father paid for a new door.

My mom worked when I was growing up. During the summer, my poor dad would get numerous phone calls from us kids tattling on each other. It's too bad caller id wasn't invented then. I'm sure that would have saved him many frustrations. I don't remember any punishment from those phone calls, but had I been in my dad's place, I would have changed phone numbers.

When my mom didn't work and there was a problem, it was always dealt with the same way, "Wait until your dad gets home." I'm hesitant to type this, but that's how it was. When my dad would get home, we would get spanked with a wooden spoon. It didn't happen a lot, but when it did, I knew I was completely busted.

At the beginning of my 9th grade year, there was a new boy who I thought was the cutest. I got his phone number and we would talk on the phone. One day when I was home alone, he came over. We just talked on the front porch. Even this was against the rules, but I took a chance. I should have known better. One of my neighbors saw and tattled on me. This resulted in a grounding. Thank goodness I was off groundation by the time there was the 1st dance of the year, because I got to go and see him there.

That's about all the memories I have of getting in trouble growing up.