Choices vs. consequences--Part 2

There is again...
Choices vs. Consequences.
This targets our children mostly.  Something that I have pounded into Anna's brain more than any other message is that...
"To make good choices."
EVERY choice has a consequence, whether that will effect you or another person, is something you have to think about how that choice comes to fruition.


Here's a good story that proves choices vs. consequences:
We started Anna with a prepaid cell, 6th grade maybe.  For emergencies only.  To call family, in case of emergency.  With this phone came one rule.  I get to see the phone anytime I want.  Year and a half later, another phone upgrade, not a great phone, but she can call her friends, still prepaid, have to be on the same network.  Same rule applies, I ask for the phone, you hand it over.  No foul language, etc.
Freshman year...nice phone, unlimited text, NO DATA, but yes, we are now at texting level.  See she knew from the beginning what the rules were, so we went over it again, but now I gave her the consequence of a bad choice.  I ask for the phone and you hand it over. If I read something I disagree with, I will literally smash the phone with a hammer and she will not get another.   I read whenever I want, I call whoever I want.  My phone, I'm paying the bill.  Never had any problems.  One evening she walked by me texting and I said, gimme.  She handed it right over, as if nothing...WOW.  Bad words, very bad words, lots of them.  The last person she had talked to I told them that her mother had her phone and that Anna would not have a cell phone indefinitely.  The consequence was I walked outside to the garage with that phone and got a hammer.  Flattened that phone.  The more I hit it the more upset I got, because I wanted it to become little pieces.  Cell phones don't do that....they just flatten out.  Finally, my Kevin made me stop (yes, he was laughing).
I took the phone in the house, put it in a ziplock bag and threw it at her and said, "now try to text that language."


When summer came around she asked when she was getting a phone...we did not have a landline anymore.  Why, I asked?  "I'd like to talk to my friends."  So, I got a pad of paper, some envelopes, and stamps and said here ya go.


It was over a year before she got another phone, but I'm pretty sure I made a point.  I still pay her bill, but she is in college and there are more strings that have to be cut from my heart daily.  At 20, she deserves her privacy.  I just hope she remembers to make the right choices.