Oh, you're THAT mom!

No mother wants to hear that saying. That is because it usually has a negative connotation with it: ...the mom who gets after the kids friends whenever her child is sad, who lets her kids drink at their house because it is safer that having them go out to do it, who thinks her child couldn't possibly be the one who caused the trouble at school, who makes her daughter say they are sisters, etc. While not any of these listed above, this weekend I became the mom who leads her child in juvenile delinquincy! Luckily I had a partner in crime: Sean. *I did have to tie him down with duct tape and throw him in the car, but he would still be guilty by association by law.*
A week and a half ago was the elections for Student Body President. Friday was speeches and voting, and while they did try to get results before the weekend, due to absenses and close numbers, they needed to wait till Monday for results. When Nate came home that day I asked him how it went. He acted all mad and said "well I learned that I am totally going to be toliet papering (the friend who won)'s house. We laughed and visited, and that was all that was said. A year or two ago we started a tradition of having a Friday the 13th party for the kids and their friends. This past Friday was yet another. I gave in, since there has been like 4 Friday the 13ths and we had only had 1 party.
For the first couple hours I was up with a headache, I got feeling a little better, so I decided to join the group. The boys were talking about girls, and "revenge", and pranks, etc. I started to look on facebook and saw that it was this girls birthday and that they were having a girls late night over there. I said to the boys "Guess who else is having a late night" Oh man, the excitement and ideas started flying! I quickly realized that eventually these boys are going to play some of these pranks on people, and you know 10 year old boys: not all of them are appropriate. So I in my wisdom decided "Hey this is a great opportunity to teach them a lesson of how to play pranks so that if can be fun to all."
Sean and I threw the 2 youngest kids, 2 middle boys, a friend in a wheelchair, nate 5 other friends a roll of toliet paper, forks, and a door knocker into the back of the explorer and drove to the next street so that they all could be involved.
I should have brought earplugs, because it was one noisy car! They were so excited, and so I had to gain control of the noise and say: "Have you ever done this before? Well I have, so you better listen to me so that you don't get yourselves in trouble!" I preceded to tell them the rules, and said "You can ONLY do this ONCE every TWO years! Otherwise it will be a problem, and you will get in trouble! No the toliet paper cannot get wet, and No you cannot throw it over the house. No eggs, No shaving cream, it is not okay to gather all the stinky diapers in the neighborhood and deposit them on the yard, no silly notes, and this is why......." *I hope that I answered their questions, and drew a complete black and white picture for them.*
So, 2 grab toliet paper, and 2 grab forks. Now you have to picture this. That house is so bright! ALL of the exterior lights are on, and both the mom and dad are sitting on the front couch! There are cars driving by, street lights, and neighbors at home with their lights on! Not to mention we are practically in front of their home in our car with our parking lights on! hehehe I am totally laughing with Sean watching one of the boys knocking on the garage window (it was supposed to go on a basement window when they were all finished) while one is trying to spread TP, and the other 2 right by the front steps trying to insert forks into frozen lawn. Then seriously 30 seconds into it we see the dad run out, and we hear girls running out and all the kids screaming and running. When we get home, 2 of the 5 come home.....the other 3 are MIA and likely POWs! "We have to go back and get them" the 2 say. "No you can't!" I say. "Your parents will be here any minute." Like a coward I say "Sean, why don't you go get them!" "You started this he said!" I hate it when he is right! So I go to get them, and they are not at the girls house! Jaron and Jake who wanted to do the rescue mission but settled for the lookout from the front steps told me they saw some people run to the park. So I head down the next street only to find 3 boys toliet papering their teachers house! (Our backyard neighbor!) *Quick story: When I was a sophomore in HS I dabbled in pranks like this. I bought a toliet from the DI for $5, my friends and I put it in my seminary teachers yard with a silly note. What I did not know was that he and his wife were watching us from the front window (I only said I did it, I didn't say I was good at it!) Before we knew it the teacher FLEW out the door with a super soaker, scared the crap out of me and we each (Me the worst because I was the slowest) got so wet! I remember feeling guilty, but his wife actually thanked me. She said: "He is new to the school, and we always know that when students care enough to do this to us that we have passed the test!" Mr. Hall: I sure hope you feel the same way, because I know that those boys did it because they like you.
Now his house was really funny to watch them do, because they did not get "caught". Once again you could see my tailights (I guess I was the get away car!), but one neighbor was watching from his big picture window, cars kept passing, and the neighbor girl of their close friends got dropped off, and looked over too!
When I got them home I once again laid out the law to them, we got a good laugh and went to bed hoping that we were not the next target that night. Well, the lesson did not end there. Remember my #1 goal: It needs to be fun for everyone involved: well, that night we got SNOW. So I woke Nate up at 6:30 am and said "We had fun, but now we have some consequences: snow=wet toliet paper! Now we have to go clean it up!" So we went to work before we would get caught, hoping that he had seen it the night before (we left the bags on the steps just in case.) We drove by the girls house, but either the boys didn't do too much damage, or the girls had picked them up the night before. Then we got a sausage biscuit from McDonalds and visited on the way home. It was truly a unique mother son experience, but we had fun, and I hope that I was able to teach him a good lesson from it, I know they had a blast! I feel so greatful for good families, and for great friends for my children (and teachers!) Thanks for all you do to support me and my family!