Grounded for Life

When was the last time you were grounded? Was it 15 years ago, 20 years, 25 years? Have you ever been grounded??? Well, supposedly grounding ends when you turn 18, move out of your parents house and start a life of your own. Well, there a few very select times in life where grounding can come back into play and used as a last resort to a frustrating, reoccurring, annoyance.

Harvey, with all that is on his mind, occasionally takes off to work with a set of car keys in his pocket. Before we bought the van, it was quite the inconvenience. We only have one set of keys to the Honda so, when he would take off with those car keys, I would be sequestered at home until he found a break to come home and bring me the keys.

Since we bought the van, we haven't had that problem considering we were given four keys and three remotes for the car. However, little by little, the sets of keys have been disappearing. Probably into the abyss of the garage or storage room. Nevertheless, they are missing. So, I have been down to my spare....very spare set for the past month or so. Now, I am not sure who has misplaced them. It could be me, it could be Harvey, it could be Toad, it could be some garden gnome. I don't know but, they are on a sabbatical somewhere in the unknown.

Well, today, we were running a few minutes behind schedule. Ok, several minutes behind schedule. I was trying to find pants for Toad, shove cinnamon toast and milk into Kyra's hands and get Kaeson to put on his shoes when I looked to the clock and saw that we only had 6 minutes to get Kyra to school. Plenty of time. So, I went for the car keys and found that they were not in their usual hanging place. After a frantic 3 minute scourge of the house, I called Harvey in a panic wanting to know if he had seen them.

I don't know why I was surprised when he piped up and said that he had them in his pants pocket. He had run an errand last night while using my car and had neglected to hang the keys back up. I hit a 10 on the stress level, hung up the phone and headed out the door to walk Kyra to school. Now, I really shouldn't be complaining, we live two blocks from the school, but I couldn't make that walk with two kids, a stroller and the dog in the now 1 1/2 minutes remaining until the school tardy bell.

Upon my return home, both the boys were crying. Both for different reasons. To boot the dog was gagging from being dragged the whole way home by Kaeson. I was irritated and had to deal with my frustration. So, I called Harvey. He sheepishly answered the call again where I proceeded to tell him that he is now completely grounded from driving my car until he finds two of the three missing sets of keys.

Now, is this harsh? Maybe. Is he the only one at fault for losing the keys? Probably not. Do I feel vindicated? Oh, yeah. Vindicated and a little bit guilty that I came down on him so hard. However, on the up side of anger, I bet you that I will get two of those three sets of keys back within the week.