We just caught my dd and friend with e-cigarretes. Dd claims it was just her friend. She is a good kid but she is 12 and I know how things are at that age. What is the right punishment?
I'm sure you did the obvious--confiscate the vaping pen. I wouldn't believe that it's just her friend; that's what I told my mom back in the day when we were caught with cigarettes. I honestly believe that in cases like these, more than punishment, you want to seek to understand. Why was she doing this? What's the deal with her friend? She's only 12 so the good news is that you still have the opportunity to wield power over her privileges (social, phone, whatever her currency is). But in a few years, your ability to do so will be greatly diminished, so I would absolutely use this as an opportunity to talk to her about how disappointed you are, how much you care about her safety, and how this kind of behavior results in a loss of trust, which forces you to be more watchful and to curtail her freedom since she is showing she's not ready for it.
I'm sure you did the obvious--confiscate the vaping pen. I wouldn't believe that it's just her friend; that's what I told my mom back in the day when we were caught with cigarettes. I honestly believe that in cases like these, more than punishment, you want to seek to understand. Why was she doing this? What's the deal with her friend? She's only 12 so the good news is that you still have the opportunity to wield power over her privileges (social, phone, whatever her currency is). But in a few years, your ability to do so will be greatly diminished, so I would absolutely use this as an opportunity to talk to her about how disappointed you are, how much you care about her safety, and how this kind of behavior results in a loss of trust, which forces you to be more watchful and to curtail her freedom since she is showing she's not ready for it.