To my surprise, my sister decided to start being more open about disciplining me. I think it was a risky move on her part because I wouldn’t have been able to guess how my mother would have reacted, and I think my sister got lucky with how it turned out.
It happened on a Friday night when I had talked about possible plans to see some friends. My mom had indicated she was OK with it, but I knew I still needed to get my sister’s permission. I didn’t expect her to give it to me because she had been complaining about me not getting my homework done all week. And I was right, when I asked her she said no.
As we were getting ready for dinner my mother confirmed if I was going out and I said no. She asked why not and ask I was thinking of how to answer, my sister said that I had been bad about homework all week and she had told me I couldn’t go out. I was shocked to hear her say that openly, as her discipline had been completely our secret up until that moment.
There was a moment of awkwardness as I wasn’t sure how my mom would react. But she just smiled and reminded me that I have to get my homework done. My sister was definitely pleased with the reaction, and decided to see how much more she could reveal. She said that she had grounded me for the weekend and wasn’t sure if maybe she should ground me longer.
My mom responded that instead of grounding me for a specific amount of time, I ought to be grounded until I could show I was being better with my homework. It was like the two of them were discussing how to punish me, but the final decision was being left up to my sister.
My sister turned to me and said that I was grounded all of the following week, and that I had to get all my homework done that week or the grounding would continue. My mother then added that she heard my new punishment and that I better obey it.
After that, my mother wasn’t really involved in the punishments I got from my sister, but she was often aware of them. There were even times when my mother would check with my sister first before giving me permission to do something.
Loading comments...