My wife and I went out of town one day on a business trip, and we left our two teenage sons alone in the house. We figured that they were old enough to take care of themselves without any problems, but we were wrong. We told them not to do anything crazy, like throwing a party. They promised us that they wouldn’t but they did it anyway, and invited all of their young friends. The party got out of hand and someone broke the plantation shutters, ruined the couch, clogged one of the toilets, put a hole in the wall, and stained the carpet.
We were furious with our sons. They had deliberately disobeyed us and then tried to cover up the fact that they had the party. Their cover up efforts were useless. Maybe if they had spent as much time thinking about not having the party as they did trying to cover up the damage from it, then they wouldn’t have ruined the house. My wife and I punished the boys by taking away their electronics, limiting them to only school and back, forbidding them from talking with their friends outside of school for half a year, and making them fix the mess they made.
I made the boys wake up bright and early in the morning to start repairing the damage from the party. The first thing we did was patch the hole in the wall. I made them do all of the work while I watched. They used an online video as a guide for how to make the repair. Next they installed the shutters, and then removed the stain from the carpet and the couch. I made them get rid of the toilet clog last because I felt that it was the most difficult thing to do. They really hated doing that one.