Random acts of typing

Okay, so - I’m just getting home, opening the door, taking my key out of the lock, and my 12 year old demon attacks me with the largest hug I’ve received since she graduated kindergarten, and says VERY LOUDLY…. HI MOM!!!  Okay - that’s not normal.  Generally, she is a fairly retiscent child who doesn’t have much use for physical affection for her mother, no matter how cool she may be.  Okay, no red flags yet, but that was odd.

Then T - her best bud/sister is right in front of me - mind you, I’m not quite two steps into the house - there’s a leak in the upstairs bathroom and I need to handle it RIGHT NOW….  It’s really bad - note the gravity of the situation, and the seriousness of her face, even though you can’t see it, work with me.  My response - Okay, let me get in the door, take my shoes off and put my purse and lunch container away….. As I’m walking from the kitchen back to the stairs to go check out the “leak”….. I see….

TWO BOYS SITTING ON MY COUCH!!!  Are you SERIOUS???!!!????  Oh HELL NO!  Yep, this was my response….

I B-line for the living room - point toward the back door and command the boys to GET OUT NOW!  I turn around to two girls, aged 11 and 12, who are not the girls I saw when I walked in the door.  They’ve been replaced with open-mouthed, saucer-sized eyes, shock victims, expecting me to explode all over the living room.  They are not quite sure what is going to happen at this point because I had slammed the door so hard, I wondered if the window pane would have broken out - careless of me, but heck, I was pissed…..  The order to them was to GET UPSTAIRS, NOW!  That all I could say.  They had bold-faced lied to me, tried to distract me and re-route me in order to sneak homies 1 & 2 out the back door.  Are you kidding me?  They instantly disappeared and I followed them up the stairs, not sure of what I was going to do or say….  All I could say was “I will not tolerate lying” and slammed their door for emphasis. 

Back downstairs, I sat on the couch and was just completely unsure of my plan of attack.  Do I break out a belt?  Do I berate them for hours?  Do I use the half my education in psychology to attempt an understanding of what/why/where/how things had happened?  Better yet, let’s text demon #2’s dad and see what his response is…..  “the girls are in BIG trouble.  there were 2 boys here when I got home.”  This generated an immediate phone call…  ‘WHAT?’…..  At this point, I just had to laugh.  It wasn’t really that long ago that I was sneaking around trying to be grown, but what is the proper punishment in this situation????

We ended up talking to them, with a belt in hand to emphasize the severity of the situation.  I dropped the “I’m so disappointed” line which generated a few tears and we touched on violence that could occur, and definitely let them know they were grounded.  I’m not sure if this is the right way to handle this situation.  What do you think??? Please share.  I’ve been through some teeny-bopper stuff before, but it’s been a while, and this is my one and only baby….  Ugh.  They’ve cleaned my house top to bottom and today they’re working on his - we’ll see what other kinds of torturous hell we can incorporate into their grounding….. Anyone got a “how to” guide on this crap?  It’d be nice to read the Clif notes….