crime and punishment and sadness...

our precious little girls have recently been allowed new freedoms. and with that we expected a bit of responsibility. instead what we got was sneaky behavior. well one was sneaky and the other one covered.

it was a pretty bad infraction, the worst part being the what-ifs. i won't go into all the details but will say it involved bethany sneaking out of the house. she's 7.

we have always known that bethany would be a challenge. this weekend though was a horrible reality that we are going to have a very hard time as she grows older. especially if we don't set strict limits now. we have had limits in place before, but also tried to allow her to be the free spirit she is.

surprisingly we were on the same page as far as discipline and expectations. we usually aren't when it comes to parenting. and actually my husband handled the situation much better than i did. it just so happened that we discovered this on our way out the door for a weekend away. and maybe it was a good thing that we had a "cooling off" period.

the emotion we have is more sadness than anger. and we had to punish both children pretty severely. not with spankings but with restricting almost all of their freedoms and most of their fun activities. and even though we are so sad, really there was no other choice.

our girls are still young and innocent enough to not know of the dangers that lurk beyond the safety of home. and now, we will have to teach them about the things we've tried so hard to shield them from.

tonight, i'm just so very sad.