And...she's grounded!

Yes, my 5 year old, Kindergartner is GROUNDED...until Friday. Ugh! So, she's been having an issue with a little boy at school who's been picking on her (I'll refer to him at the 'boy' instead of by name). And the other night she had a mental break down, and that how we learned about it. Apparently the little boy pushed her and punched her in the stomach on Monday. She told the class Aide, whom Rebecca said didn't believe her. So Monday night I sat down and wrote her wonderful teacher a note explaining what happened and to see if she could look into it and she did.

So yesterday, we sat Rebecca down and talked to her about defending herself. We told her she did the right thing by going to the teacher. BUT we also told her that if going to the teacher didn't work and he hit her again...to knock the hell out of him. We explained that she would get in trouble at school, but she would not get in trouble at home for it. We told her to do what she had to do to defend herself. One hard punch in the nose would stop him from messing with her. I WILL NOT allow her to be bullied at school by anyone! Rules be damned!!!

So today I pick her up and she immediately said she got her 'Card' pulled which she's never had done before. She said "I defended myself just like you said". So we had a long talk in the car about what happened. She proceeds to tell me that this little boy pushed her and she went to tell the teacher. The teacher said, in Rebecca's words, "I'll TRY to get him to stop". (Thought that was odd, didn't sound like that's what she would've said. I know these teachers pretty well now). And then she said she went up to this boy and told him to "Please stop being mean to me". And then she says he hit her again and she hit him back. OK. Well she did exactly what we told her to do and that was fine. We would not be mad at her for getting her card pulled for defending herself.

So...we get home and I pull out her daily work folder and in it it says "Rebecca was playing during work time". So I ask her "Did you get your card pulled for playing during work time or for hitting the boy?" And without thinking about our prior conversation she said "For playing during work time."

ME: "So you didn't get in trouble for hitting the boy?"
Her: "No"
ME: "Did you hit the boy at all?"
HER: (very low in tone with head hanging) "No"
ME: "%$&! *%$@ *&^(#@!!!!!! Why did you lie to me????"
HER: "Because I didn't want to get in trouble for playing when I was suppose to be working".
ME: "Well little Miss, You are grounded until Friday! No T.V. and no Stuffed Animals!"(those two things are her currency.)
HER: "NOOOOOOOOOO!!! Momma please don't take my animals and TV!!! Puuhhhhleeezzzee!"
ME: "Too bad. That will teach you not to lie to me anymore!"
And so on and so forth...

After cooling down we sat down and talked about why lying is bad and how she almost got the little boy in trouble when he didn't do anything. And why I had to take things away from her to teach her a lesson.... All the while...waterworks city! UGH.

Man, it's hard to do it too. I already want to give her her stuff back but I can't. But what's even harder is knowing my child lied through her teeth! OMG. And on top of that, blamed a little boy for something he didn't do..this time. I was so about to come home and call his parents and give them a piece of my mind. What if I did that before I found this out? Can you imagine? I mean really...who doesn't want to believe their kid? I wouldn't have ever thought of her to do this. She's fibbed about little things like "No mom, there's nothing under my bed" or "Yes I brushed my teeth". But I guess it was bound to happen. Now it's seeing to it she doesn't do this again. Hmmmm....any advice?

Thanks for listening and letting me vent!