Choose Your Battles Wisely

Hugh and I are having a fundamental disagreement over how to punish the Man-Cub for a recent transgression involving his PSP, a classroom and a certain rule barring said PSP from said classroom.

I'm of the mind to let it go with a stern lecture which, as you can probably imagine, has already been administered.

Hugh, on the other hand, feels that the Cub should be barred from attending tomorrow's school ski trip.

My thought on the matter is this: the Cub knows he screwed up. He knows he wasn't supposed to take the game to school let alone play it in a classroom when he should have been reading the assigned text. He also readily admits that he was wrong not to tell us about the teacher confiscating his PSP, and he realizes how embarrassing it is for parents to get a call from the Principal. He's genuinely sorry for the error in judgment.

Hugh's thought on the matter is this: yes, the Cub knows he screwed up. He knew he screwed up the minute the PSP was taken away last TUESDAY which was three, count 'em, three days ago. Three days in which the Cub could have told us about it instead of letting the Principal make that call. On Tuesday, he could have forgiven the mistake; three days later he is not so inclined to do so.

To which I point out that, yes, he failed to tell us. Yes, he was wrong to take the game to school, to use it in class, to not tell us the day it was confiscated, yes; wrong on so many levels, but, let's be honest; this is a first offense; we've never been called to the office for something the Cub has done (unlike the numerous trips that we made into the office say, during The Teenager's Middle School years) and it isn't even that major of an offense.

Indeed, not even the Principal was interested in barring the Cub from the ski trip; that particular punishment going to the kids who have served In-School Suspensions, had numerous detentions and regular suspensions and who narrowly escaped tarring and feathering due to their own misdeeds.

The Cub, on the other hand is not a trouble maker. He's not one to lie or to bully other students. The child gets awesome grades which don't exactly come easy for him and he is willing to write letters of apology to both the classroom teacher and his Principal.

He has never punched a girl in the stomach in P.E., has never attempted to strangle a classmate with the straps of his own backpack nor has he ever been caught in the baseball dugout with alcohol and cigarettes, all of which have happened to students at his school.

So, his PSP was confiscated by a teacher and he was scared to tell us for fear that we might overreact. So, we had to hear it from the Principal. So what?

I guess what I am trying to say is that this? Is NOT THE MOUNTAIN I CHOOSE TO DIE ON, HUGH.

Besides, we already paid for the ski trip.