I embarrassed my daughter today. She was willfully defiant in her homework (she talked back, refused to do work, and quietly ripped the page up while I was out of the room.) The idea was to get the book work done quickly because a friend of hers was coming to play before noon. So we had an intense heart to heart (after the torn page) and she had to finish her work, then sit in her room for 1/2 hour after the friend arrived.

She finished the work a couple of minutes after the friend arrived. I explained to her friend that my daughter had a little trouble with her work and attitude and that she had to sit for half an hour before she could play. My girl looked at me with pleading, tear brimming eyes, embarrassed that I would tell her friend her troubles. My heart clutched, but I said,"She is your friend, she will understand when you have trouble." Off she went to her room. (No tears spilled.)

As I went back to finishing the noon meal prep, I felt bad that I had to embarrass her. She was so uncomfortable. But then I thought, "That is just a small bit of uncomfortable." If she never has to deal with the uncomfortableness of consequences for wrong actions in these small ways, how will she be able to deal with larger uncomfortable moments in life? I must be realistically tough with her (them) when she is young to prepare her for when she is older. It's not much fun though, when those big eyes look at you.

So we learned a few lessons this morning:

Mom is in charge.

Friends who are real friends will understand when you have trouble.

Work that must be done is best done quickly. (As Ma Ingalls said.)

At least I hope she learned all these lessons! Somehow, I think we will be covering a few of them again in the future.