My Brush With The Law

Cookie is truly going through a hard stage. I am struggling with how to help her through this.
She has treated her dad very poorly for some time. But I chalked it up to his poor parenting skills.
Now I am the enemy as well. We have been having issues for months, and I am not seeing the
light at the end of the tunnel. I wish I had someone to help but I don't. Her dad is no help at all. He
blames me for everything. My bad parenting and allowing them to have this out of control behavior.
So Cookie and I have been going to counseling together. I like her counselor. She is good at what she is doing, but Cookie is only harmonious at the office. She is rather hard to live with all the rest of the time.

Anyway, one day was particularly bad. I decided to impose the consequences for her behavior. 
She lost the privilege of the laptop and her cell phone. When I calmly took the phone, she went wild. As I pushed her on the bed she continued to be aggressive. So I smacked her. On her thigh. I took the phone and left the room.
When I went to bed that evening I asked her brother to let her use his phone so she could call her dad. I fell asleep listening to him playing his guitar. He woke me about an hour later, telling me that he talked to his dad after Cookie had. And the dad had called the police and reported me for child abuse. The police where on their way! I told my son, who was freaking out, that everything would be fine. I had nothing to worry about, what was done was done. Cookie would not come out of her room, and was screaming at her dad to make him retract the call. But I told her it was okay. I explained that if she was going to tattle on me to dad then that was my consequence. And I take full responsibly. I went back to bed.

With in the next hour my door bell rang. Both the kids came to the living room as I opened the door and welcomed in the officer. He asked if I knew he was coming, I told him yes, since the dad wanted to take full credit for this act of justice. He came in and asked if everything was okay, I said yes. He asked Cookie is was okay and what happened. She said she was and that the two of us are having issues. He looked at my son, who gave a reassuring nod. I added that during our afternoon I had smacked her. I figured I had nothing to hide, give a full disclosure.
He asked Cookie again if she was okay, and she said yes.
The officer then proceeded to inform my Cookie that I am her mother. I am the custodial parent. Meaning I am in charge of her. She is a child and can not make choices for herself on her own yet. And until age 18, I am in charge and responsible for making the decisions for her. He went on to add that if I feel that spanking her is justified to control her behavior, that is okay, I am the mother. We all just stared at him. He continued to go on saying that she had wasted my time, her dad's time, her own time and most importantly his time. And that he had better never be called out to our house again for this kind of childishness.
I just gave him a little smile. Wanting to full on kiss this man on the lips! My son all but laughed out loud.
The officer asked me again if everything was okay, I said yes. He looked at my son and said there was no follow up report to give the dad, but asked that my son let him know the request was filled and there will be no further action taken, and to fill dad in on what had been said. I shook his hand and locked the door behind him. I followed the kids down the hall to their rooms. I hugged my boy, who at that totally laughed out loud. I kissed him good night and he went to call his dad. I went into Cookies room, told her I loved her and tried to hug her. She wanted no part of me. I kissed her cheek and told her it was time for bed and shut off her light. Then I went back to bed.

There you go , my brush with the law! No report was written, I never even got his name. I wish I had, I would have liked to send a thank you note. But lesson learned by all that night.

Is there any question that I would ever get back with the dad.....NOPE!!!!