They Did WHAT?!?!?!?!

So last weekend while I was in 'therapy" Aidan had a play date with his buddy Jimbo* (*names have been altered to protect the innocent).  Now Aidan and Jimbo have been friends since junior kindergarten, and Jimbo is a super sweet kid.

Anywho.....

On Monday I got home to a message from Sally* (*again, names changed to protect the innocent) Jimbo's mom.  In her message she said: "Tara, Jimbo and I would like to come over to your place to discuss what happened on Saturday."

Uh. Oh.

I texted Sally right away: "CALL ME!!!"

I racked my brain trying to figure out what happened.  Did Aidan and Jimbo get into a fight?  Did they get on the computer and look-up 'questionable' things?  My Mommy sense was tingling, and I eventually settled on: "I bet they got into some monstrous mischief."

Sally called back and gave me the lowdown....

Turns out Aidan (ever the creative child that he is) thought it would be a good idea to tie Jimbo's karate belt to the ceiling fan so that Jimbo's cat could try to swat at it.  In order to do this, he moved Jimbo's bureau under the fan, climbed up and tied the belt to the fan.  They then turned on the fan and watched while the belt whipped around.  Apparently the fan 'ran out of juice', which is kid-speak for: "the motor died."

So strike one is that he moved furniture and then proceeded to break the fan's motor.

Then, in another moment of sheer brilliance, Jimbo and Aidan decided that now would be a good time to get Jimbo's toy that had been stuck in the gutter for two years.  In order to do this, they removed the screen from Jimbo's window, and Jimbo climbed out on the ROOF to retrieve said toy.

Yep, you read that right.  ON THE ROOF!!!

This is where I said to Sally: "Holy Crap - did your head just explode, because mine sure did!"

Sally and I were in agreement that these kids needed to be punished, and it needed to be memorable. She had a plan.....

After I picked Aidan up from school, I asked him what happened at Jimbo's house.  In fact, I actually said: "Sally called, and I KNOW what happened."

To which he looked at me totally bewildered and said: "What happened?"

I prodded a little more, and the kid was totally clueless.  "We found a tire in the woods Mummy." Was all I got from him.

Upon further cross examination, (with many leading questions thrown in) Aidan fessed up to moving the bureau and tying the belt to the fan.  He seriously did not see what the big deal was.  AND, he had no idea that they broke the motor.  When I asked about the roof incident, he admitted that he and Jimbo removed the screen and that Jimbo climbed out onto the roof to get the toy.

It was obvious from the way he told me that he had NO STINKIN CLUE how dangerous, stupid, moronic, idiotic (did I mention dangerous?) this little stunt was.  It wasn't until I said to him: "Do you know that if Jimbo fell off the roof he could have died ?!?!" that his eyes got big, and welled up with tears.

"Died Mummy?"

"YES!!" I said in an exasperated tone that only mothers who are exceedingly frustrated with their block-headed nine year olds can have.  "DIED Aidan. As in gone.  Forever. Never coming back."

"Oh".  He whispered back.

So Sally and Jimbo came over, and we talked, and Sally presented the punishment.  Aidan was to go over to her house, and he and Jimbo were going to weed the garden, and pick up all the branches she had pruned.

Not so bad you think, right?

Well, the day of the punishment arrived and it was cool, and gray, and drizzly. In short, it was bloody miserable out. They were outside for two hours weeding and filling up lawn bags.  By the time I picked Aidan up his hands were prun-ey, and his feet were soaked.  He claims he filled up 6 yard bags with weeds.  But he didn't complain, because he knew if he did I would have thrown him off a roof.

Seriously!  I guess I need to add this to my parenting list of rules: "thou shalt not go on to a roof in an attempt to get toys.  EVER!!!!"