Hey toilet! Here's 200 bucks! Flush away! And take my trust with it!

Yesterday, I hated being a parent. Yesterday, I turned into my mother. Oh God! Did you hear that? I TURNED INTO MY MOTHER!

My 10 year old son, Joonya, lost his new iPod. I discovered this little fact yesterday morning before sending him off to school. My last words to him as he walked out the door were, "Joonya! You're a %$@!* liar!" Nice, eh? Let me back up.

This year, we were at a crossroads as to what to buy Joonya for Christmas. He's at that age where he's pretty much outgrown toys, and he's not really into gaming, so finding stuff for him was difficult. He's a sports kid. Plus he's an only child so he gets really everything he wants, within reason. And fortunately for us, he doesn't really want much. We have a small fortune invested in sports equipment, and he's happy with that. Well I had the brilliant idea to buy him the 4th generation iPod Nano. DaHubs thought I was a little crazy, but is it any crazier than buying him a $200 baseball bat that he'll outgrow in two years? (which we did last summer) Uh, not really.

So the iPod was a major hit this year. Joonya was so surprised, and he took it with him on our after-Christmas road trip. The car trip was whine-free! Bingo! I made one very distinct ground rule regarding the iPod. IT DOES NOT GO TO SCHOOL. Period. End of discussion. I know my son. I know his level of responsibility with small electronics. It stays home or in the car on longer trips.

The little shit snuck it out of the house in his backpack and lost it. He had it less than 3 weeks, and it's gone, gone, gone. Gone, baby, gone. I was so pissed off, words cannot describe how livid I was. But the thing was, I wasn't mad about the money, I was mad that he lied to me. And snuck it out of the house. And did EXACTLY what I knew he would do. LOSE IT.

So yesterday morning was hell on earth. I'm sure he went to school wondering who that lunatic was inside his mother's body. See mention above of how I turned into my mother. It was like an out of body experience. When he got home from school, we had a long chat about what he had done. I stewed and worried all day at work, just ask the Camarilla hooers who had to listen to me whine all day.

I decided that he would determine his punishment, hoping that his version would be far worse than mine. I was right, he did come up with something much worse, and we agreed upon his punishment. He's working off the money. Taking it out of his bank account teaches him nothing because I'm padding his account directly with my paycheck, so he has to work it off. He's also grounded for a lengthy time which means no ice skating or hockey with the boys down the street. Ouch. The minute he backtalks or whines about his punishment, the all-star basketball team will be taken away. That's my leverage. With Joonya, sports participation is always the leverage.

If the iPod is found, which I know is highly unlikely, he won't be getting it back. Lesson learned. For both of us.

Parenting isn't hard. Good parenting is.