Sharing Memories Week 31: You're Grounded!

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week (Week 31) is "You're Grounded!" 

Were you ever grounded as a child? Was that a consequence your parents used to discipline you or your siblings? What was the usual disciplinary action taken for breaking rules or other misbehaviour? Did you have to sit in a time-out? Were you sent to your room?

My parents were pretty easy-going. I don't remember ever being sent to my room, or grounded, and I  was never given a spanking. Or maybe I was just really well-behaved... no, that's not it. I do remember doing things that would be considered naughty - like playing hooky from school, like scratching my initials in the brand new stereo, like locking all the school bathroom doors and then lying about it, like sneaking a kitten into my room and hiding it in my closet for weeks (even though I knew my mom was allergic to cats). 

I just remember my parents talking to me about my behaviour, asking questions about why I'd done whatever I had done, and making it clear they weren't happy with me. 

As a teenager I never had a curfew. My father died when I was just barely 14 and after that my mother seemed to forget I was around most of the time. She pretty much let me fend for myself and do whatever I wanted to do. If I stayed out all night she never said a word. 

She never asked where I was going or who I was with. Being completely deaf in one ear, she would take out her hearing aid, go to bed with her good ear buried in the pillow and fall sound asleep. She never woke up when I came in at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. or whenever.

Believe it or not when my friends  complained about their parents being strict or having to rush home to make curfew, I often wished I had a parent who cared enough about my well-being to do that! I wished that when I came home at night my  mother would be wide awake, unable to sleep for worrying about me and not going to bed until she saw that I was safely home. But that never happened. 

Somehow I survived and didn't get into too much trouble which I think probably had something to do with my personality and the small village I lived in. Had I grown up in a city who knows what might have happened with me having unrestricted freedom from age 14 on.