Ugly lessons

We have a small creek that runs behind our neighborhood. There is a bridge over it with a walking path to connect our neighborhood and the one behind it. For some reason, the girls are obsessed with this bridge the last couple of weeks. Luckily for me, I had a great bargaining chip to use to get them onto a summer schedule. They could ride their scooters to the bridge IF they vacuumed their rooms, put their laundry away, brushed their hair AND their teeth, (which seemed to be the most unreasonable of all my requests) and got dressed. After some argument and a little helping along, they finally got finished with the necessary requirements and went outside to get their scooters. I opened the front door and said, "Someone needs to come in before you go and get a watch so you know what time you need to come home. Hurry and come grab one." I then went back to my business of folding laundry.

Two minutes later, I realize, no one has come to get their watch and there are no girls in the driveway. I was fuming! How dare they go without my say-so? How do they know how long I want them to be gone? I didn't even have time to tell them to stay together and not get in the water (which I was pretty sure they would do, but who knows?) I spent the next few minutes pondering ways I could calmly tell them that they crossed the line and consequently ruin what I am sure they viewed as the perfect summer--days spent riding their scooters and bikes to the fabulous bridge and playing all day. They would NOT be going to the bridge anytime soon, if ever again. They were DEFINITELY grounded from their scooters, if not their bikes and anything else that assisted a quick get-away from the house that was now sure to be their prison. They would be spending the rest of the day in their rooms thinking about how bad it was to leave the house without telling me where they were going (even though I knew) and when they would be back.

A couple of minutes later, I heard them all riding into the garage. "We'll have to tell mom," said one. "I don't want to," said another. "We'll have to say where we were. Let me tell her," said Cinderella. "Hmmm, what could it be?" thought I.

They came bursting into the door. "We are NEVER going to that bridge again," said Cinderella, with panic in her voice and tears beginning to puddle in her eyes.

"What happened?"

"I saw a HUGE snake. It was awful. It was big and black and almost got me."

"Good," I said, trying to keep a smile from creeping onto my face, (I'm compassionate like that) "It serves you right for going without permission and without following directions."

"It was terrible," said Sleeping Beauty, "we thought she was joking, but she wasn't. My heart is pounding so hard I think my head could pop off."

"Well, perhaps it was someone trying to teach you a lesson," I said.

"Mom, it was real. It was huge and I was so close to it. I can't believe it didn't get me. We are seriously never going there again," Cinderella promised.

"You're right, you're not. You are grounded from your scooters for the rest of the week," I explained.

"Good," Snow White said. "That was scary."

"Yeah, good" Cinderella said. "I'm still shaking. I could barely ride my scooter home, I was so scared."

"Me too," said Sleeping Beauty, "it would have been awful if it got her and you didn't know we were there. We would have had to go to a strangers house for help."

So that settles it. No more scooters. I can't decide if I am grateful for snakes just this once. I think I might really be their friend this one little day in my life. I just love when there are natural consequences, even if they're ugly ones.