Pink Slip

I never claimed to be the best parent.  Of course I have high hopes and fairy tale dreams for my children, but in REAL life, my biggest hope is that they don’t end up homeless on the street having sex with strangers to buy their next bottle of vodka or 8-ball of coke.  Somedays I wonder if I am steering them away, or towards that lifestyle.

Exhibit A:

Yesterday Zehn came home from school with a pink slip.  I have heard of pink slips in movies, but until today have never actually seen one with my own eyes.  Yes, that’s right, my child exposed me to my first pink slip sighting.  He walked in the door, directly over to where I was sitting, smacked it down on the table and said matter-of-factly, “I got in trouble for throwing snowballs today”.
I could lie and tell you that I immediately went into “teaching” mode as a mom, but that is not the case.  My first reaction was pride that I had raised him to tell me the truth, even if the truth was that he was in trouble…….fair enough.  My second reaction was where I think I derailed the positive parenting train.   I said “Well, did you at least hit someone with the snowball?”  He smiled cautiously to test if I was serious or not, then replied “no”.
My third reaction topped the other two as I said “Well, next time you ATTEMPT to do something that is going to get you in trouble at school, make sure that you achieve what you set out to do!!!”