Back home after 20 days in Europe. I want to thank Marry Me, sj4iy, Ditsy Damn Daffy, and holmes23 for your comments. Ally did have to testify at the grand jury hearing. My sister naturally took the day off and went with her. She said it was scary, but she did just fine. Kids are so resilient. She's a good kid, but still managed to get herself into trouble while we were away. She talked her friend, Matt (the boy who got mugged with her) into coming over while she was home alone and use my car to drive her over to her boyfriend's house. Matt didn't want to do that but she pestered him until he gave in. She figured it would be no problem. My father had taken her brother and sister to Niagara Falls for the day and my mother spends most of her time at her own place because she has such bad RA so Ally figured she would never get caught. Well my mother decided to check up on Ally that afternoon and when she got to my place Ally was gone and so was my car! She freaked out, called my sister who in turn called Ally and told her to get home NOW!
So when they pulled into the driveway Ally was terrified because she knew she was in for it. My mother told her to get in the house and she lambasted Matt saying "You get yourself home young man, and don't you ever show your face around this 'establishment' again!"
Ally got grounded for a week (the last week of summer vacation) and part of her punishment was that she had to tell her father and me what she had done. So she wrote me a letter. As I sat down to read this letter I started to get very concerned because I knew from the get go that something happened. She started out the letter with making bad choices and honestly I was afraid that she had gone and got "jiggy" with her boyfriend. Once I read what she had done I had to work very hard to keep a straight face. I was so relieved that my little girl was still a "little girl"! Then when Ally told me what my mother said to Matt, I couldn't help but shake my head and laugh. It wasn't Matt's fault, it was Ally's and my mom scared that boy silly.
You know what - This is what a parent must expect when the kids become teens. Is it acceptable, of course not, but I honestly didn't really freak out about it at all. If this is the worst thing my kid does I count myself lucky. I did ask Ally if she would have come clean if she hadn't gotten busted and she answered honestly. "No." Well at least I know that she won't lie when asked a direct question. In any case I don't think I can ever leave the country again, at least not until the kids are grown and out of the house! Good Grief!