A Change of Attitude

Attitude is justified on some days. I don't really care if you don't agree. When shit happens that you don't have any control over, you should be allowed to let the frustration show. What is wrong with getting pissed off when nothing and I do mean ABSOLUTELY nothing, goes right? Some days life just sucks you know?

So yeah, I lost my job. No, I did not do anything to make it happen. I worked when I was supposed to work. Then I show up and the boss calls a meeting and hands out final paychecks to everyone. He has the nerve to tell us he's sorry and then go on to tell us we failed, maybe we did our best, but it wasn't good enough and he's lost everything because he gambled on us. I got one word for him, although my brother thinks I'm being unfair. LOSER!

Tell me how is it I failed? I took messages, greeted peeps at the door, made fresh coffee and generally did whatever was asked of me. But, I failed. I mean never mind that nothing I did was going to bring a single dollar into the company's account. Never mind that he spent more days playing golf, or maybe that was just playing with himself, than I worked. Never mind that everyone was always waiting on him. Never mind that he chose to blame me to his clients that dared complain about his slow response times. Never mind, obviously it was totally, utterly anyone and everyone else who dared to show up and try. Whatever.

Anyway enough about the LOSER and how he wrecked things.

It's just when things take a turn for the worse you have a right to complain a little, mope around a bit, act like a complete and utter bitch. The Constitution protect these right doesn't it? Apparently those rights only exist outside my parents home and ever then people don't have to be tolerant. It's just not fair.

Can you believe my dad actually said, "I'm sick of you moping around the house and if you don't straighten up by tomorrow morning I'll give you a real reason to mope."

Like I can turn my mood on and off like a light switch. As if! I wish it worked that way. Wouldn't life be great if we could just wake up every day and decide what we wanted to feel? It's March 4th I want to feel LUCKY today! And my dad says I don't deal with reality. LOL

Needless to say I didn't make it to breakfast the next morning. It wasn't my fault, but nobody cares where blame actually belongs these days. My nephew, the little shit I have to live with because my big brother can't manage to live on his own, decided to take an extra long shower and used up all the hot water. I didn't know. I just went in to take a shower.

You'd think ice cold water hitting your naked body would be enough to justify a little screaming. I certainly had a legitimate right to be upset, but apparently my attitude problem is why I chose to be upset. My attitude problem is also why I chose to yell at my nephew about wasting water and using up all the hot water and not even having the common decency to tell me before I was committed to showering. Obviously my attitude needed correction. I mean who would yell at kid for things like that? It's just not right, not fair and totally uncalled for, right? If you could hear me growling....

I'm sure my nephew felt much better after dad stripped my towel away and made me touch my toes. He probably healed from all my scathing words as dad striped my bare ass with his belt. I'm certain he felt justice was served while I stood in the corner, bare, spanked butt on display, while he and everyone else enjoyed their breakfast. I'm sure I'll learn my lesson by next Wednesday because dad says we'll do it all over again everyday between now and then.

Wow! See it must be working because look at that positive attitude I've suddenly developed.

Grounded?!

So what's it mean?

In general I think you can describe it as a punishment focused on restricting freedom as a consequence for bad behavior. Sort of like a house arrest only the government isn't usually involved. The details seem to be a little more varying and specific within a family unit.

For Example:

My friend, Teri, she gets grounded as a consequence for most things she does wrong. The duration is anything from two days to a month. Essentially, for that period of time, she can't use her phone and can't leave her bedroom for anything other than bathroom, meals, and school. Although restrictive in physical location, it's certainly not as bad as it could be. She does still have a computer, tv, ipod, books, and pretty much anything else you might want to do to entertain yourself while stuck in your bedroom. Needless to say, I don't have much sympathy for Teri when she's grounded cause life still isn't all that bad for her.

Another friend, Lisa, winds up grounded much less often because her father favors long lectures for most things. When she does push the limits a bit too far, she gets grounded for either 1 week or 2 weeks depending on how mad she made her father. In her case, being grounded consists of having her phone, tv, and computer taken away, confined to the house with the exception of school, and having to do extra chores. The chores consist of annoying work like: polishing shoes, mirrors, or faucets; scrubbing floors, bathroom tile grout, or kitchen appliances; cleaning windows, walls, doors, or cars; and a few other laborious jobs only her father can imagine. I think that's a bit worse than Teri's situation but still not really that awful, it's only a week or two.

Then there's Amber, her parents are pretty strict. She wasn't even allowed to date until she was 16 and could not drive until she was 18. When she gets grounded, which isn't often because she actually doesn't get into much trouble if you can imagine, it's always exactly 30 days. Her parents take her bedroom door away and her room is stripped of everything non-essential. I mean they even take her lipstick away, now that's cruel. She can't go anywhere except school and her mother takes her and picks her up. Her parents keep her on a strict schedule controlling her every waking moment and she isn't allowed to talk unless she is answering a question asked of her. I personally think of all the people I know, she has it the worst. I feel bad for her when she gets grounded because I think I would go mad if I had to follow those kinds of rules for a whole month, but she manages it and never complains at all.

And last, but definitely not least, is me. That's right me. I get grounded from time to time as well when my parents feel my behavior warrants something a little longer lasting than a single spanking. For me it can vary a bit as to exactly what "privileges" are taken away, which means I never know until it happens whether I'll be able to watch TV, use the internet, leave my bedroom, etcetera. The constants are: It's never less than a week, it's always accompanied by daily bare bottomed spankings in front of the family, It always has daily corner time usually before and after the spanking but sometimes just after, and I'm always given extra chores to do on a daily basis.

I think there are probably a lot more variables than those above on grounding and I've heard of somethings which make some of this sound like out right torture and other making it sound like a walk in the park. Personally, I'd rather just take the spanking or a series of them and forget the rest, but as I've heard many times, punishment is not about what I like or prefer.