As Deni and I were folding clothes tonight, I listened to the kids playing in the front room. I heard Ryan telling Sydney not to bite him. I'm sure they were wrestling and rolling around on the front room floor. It wasn't more than a few minutes later that Sydney started crying, then (as all older siblings do when they know they have done something they knew they shouldn't have) Ryan attempt to quiet Sydney and apologize over and over in hopes that Sydney wouldn't tell.
We've learned through the years that we don't need to jump into every little fight or come running when we hear one of the kids crying. Tonight we kept folding clothes. Sydney quited down and then Ryan's conscience got the best of him. Ryan walked into the room and said while he was holding Sydney's leg in front of his mouth, he breathed (yes I said breathed) and accidentally bit her.
Hearing the previous conversation about Ryan telling Sydney to not bite him, I was a little suspicious. I said, "Do you breathe with your teeth?" He squirmed a little and insisted that it was an accident. Still knowing better, I looked at him and pressed him a little more by asking if he was telling the truth. Knowing he had been caught in a lie, he started crying and told us the truth.
We both stood there looking at him and Ryan said "I deserve to be grounded" Then 15 seconds later he said "you should ground me", then 15 seconds later "I should be punished". We let him know that he needs to tell the truth, but never gave him a punishment. As Deni put him to bed, he told her that he couldn't sleep as he "deserved to be grounded", so he came upstairs and talked to us both.
I said, "Well how about we ground you from playing Guitar Hero tomorrow", he shook his head in agreement then added "and the computer".
