You shouldn’t ground me because...

When I was in my teens, I sometimes wished that I had a twin sibling or in the least, a sister. Someone who I would not need to talk to. Someone who would just understand. Who I would share a room with, share secrets with, share my life with! I didn't realize how being so close meant we would be getting on each others nerves constantly! Little did I understand that this security in a relationship would also possibly lead to tensions, arguments and hurt feelings. I say this as I experience my kids going through everything I just mentioned above.

Last week, words led to bickering, teasing to annoying and finally, finger pointing to a punch. OUCH! The twins were let off with a stern warning. As the same sequence repeated itself the next day, Aditya was given a consequence: he would have to stay home from his (most anticipated) basketball game. I was at my wits end, stretched thin and not thinking straight. The kindness competition was not working any more! To cool myself down, I went out for a walk. When I got back, Aditya was in tears. He sheepishly said sorry and asked me to check my emails. Here is what I saw in my inbox:

As I have worked to improve at many things, you can see, I persevere. I take feedback and try to improve, even when sometimes I just don’t do it. I have gone through many stages, and I have came away with pride. I hope that you do not ground me because of yesterday and today, because when I tried yesterday, I improved today, and what pushes me forward is awful setbacks. But with too much punishment, I get angrier and this sometimes makes me do more, even though I remember that I could get punished. I love Shreya, am sincere, and try hard. Plus, there are other, less harsh, still effective punishments for this. So please, please, don’t punish me.

The first reason that you shouldn’t punish me this way is that I love Shreya. Me and Shreya have had hard times, but as you know, we are family. You can see the love between us when we lift each other up, say “mwaaaa” like babies, and how we made up with each other last night. Today she proposed to come up with alternative punishments, and I really love her because of that. When we punch each other, our judgement is clouded, and we are both sincere children and we always try hard. Maybe recently we have gone through phases, but one thing you should understand is that everyone, even you, have gone through phases. There are so many factors driving what we do, but we are all humans, and we two aren’t these psychos who should go to juvenile court, regular prison, Guantanamo Bay, or even be executed. I know that we are strict, but that doesn’t mean we punish in instigating ways. Be a good role model! I know I am being a hypocrite, but I work on what I need to work on, as you will see in the paragraph after the next paragraph.

The second reason that you shouldn’t ground me is that I am sincere. You personally say that. I have worked hard to get to where I am in math, and I work a lot to improve my basketball playing skills. I didn’t just quit basketball because I’m the worst basketball player of the 5th grade boys and I’m on the B Team. I won’t quit basketball after this season. Same applies here. Even though I punched Shreya, I didn’t give up trying to be nice. I shouldn’t have, but at least I am honest! I punched her at 5:00 today too, I know, and I condemn that. But it is the setbacks that push us forward if we think of the setbacks and correct the problems that caused them. For example, FDR, our 32nd president, made some changes to make sure that problems contributing to the Great Depression would be corrected. Since I am sincere, I am writing this.

The last and foremost reason you shouldn’t ground me is because there are some effective, less harsh punishments. For example, I have no computer time left because I wrote this essay. For example, I am willing not to use the computer and have fun by taking advantage of the spring sun and what else there is in the house.

As you can see, I hope you don’t punish me this way because I love Shreya, am hardworking, and I am sincere. Also, there are some other punishments that I can remember, too but aren’t so harsh. I promise I will be nice to her and always think first. I hope you are fine with this essay’s content.

For the record, he gets 15 minutes of screen/ computer time daily, which he is free to use as he likes. He said that he couldn't edit it and make it more effective because his 15 minutes were up :)  Also, I couldn't stop myself from rolling in laughter after reading this 'essay' and we negotiated a consequence acceptable to everyone in the family.