Cat pulled a red card at school today.

This was a first. She has only ever had one yellow.

For the uninitiated, some schools have a system whereby kids pull colored cards when they behave badly. Yellow means you lose five minutes from recess. Red means you lose all of recess. Two reds earns the holder a trip to the principal’s office.

Cat pulled her card for cutting up during a fire drill. Apparently Kyle’s booger joke merited a guffaw, and there is no guffawing during a fire drill and so she pulled a card.

Cat was quite nervous to tell me about it and was dreading my reaction. I am, after all, Bad Cop.

“So, I guess I am now grounded for a million jillion years,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Well, I don’t know about THAT,” I said. “Maybe this offense just warrants us having a conversation about the right thing to do, the potential consequences of your actions and a discussion of what a better choice would be. I think you may just get off here with a nice long discussion with Mommy.”

“Can’t I just be grounded?”