Olive's grades are excellent, and her citizenship is great too. But today I got an email from Mrs. Smith saying Olive clipped all the way down to parent contact (because of not listening and goofing around a bunch). When I brought it up to her, she frantically begged me not to tell Lucy and George. I thought that was interesting, and I made sure she had her privacy. We had a good talk about it, about choices and consequences and respect and expectations. I explained what "grounded" means, and she was grounded from play and screens for the rest of the day. She said, "I don't want to be grounded tomorrow," and I reminded her that tomorrow is a new day, that we can learn from our mistakes and leave this behind us, and that she can begin again now to be the very good, very bright girl that she is. And I told her I love her more than any mom loves their child. I really, really do.