July 28, 2012 WHAT TO DO WHEN GROUNDED? This question Ask Nikki question comes from Stephanie. She asks: Hey Nikki. I’m grounded. What do I do? It’s been soooo boring! I have nothing to occupy me! 🙁 Any suggestions? My Advice: Hey Stephanie! That totally stinks that you’re grounded. I hope you’re not grounded for too long! But no fear, I have a TON of great ideas to help the time go by! I actually gave Zoey some just recently since she was grounded too. 1. Read some awesome books….like Dork Diaries!! OK, I know that’s a totally shameless plug. You can actually do this step reading ANY book, not just mine. (But you’ll probably have the most fun if you read Dork Diaries…just sayin’!) 2. Write your own book. Do you have any ideas you’ve been thinking about? Are there any people in your school who you find interesting? You could make characters based on them. (I could write a whole novel about MacKenzie. It would probably be a lot like Twilight…that girl just sucks the life out of people!!!) You can even write a story about creative things to do when you’re grounded. That one’s a double win, because you get to write a book AND you’ll force yourself to come up with some fun ideas! 3. Redecorate your bedroom. You could move the furniture around, or hang different things on your walls. I’m ALWAYS saying I want to do some cool new art projects for my room, but then I never get around to it. Now you can totally do this! 4. Make a scrapbook of you and all your friends. You could also make a big photo collage to hang on the wall, and you could make one for your friends, too. If any of their birthdays are coming up soon, this would make an AWESOME gift!! 5. Give yourself a makeover. You could do some kind of different hairdo, and do your nails and toes. If you’re good with nail art you could practice different designs. Then next year in school, you can charge people to do nail art for them. So this isn’t really wasted time…it’s just the planning stage for an awesome new business! 6. Make up some kind of dance routine. This way, if you have a talent show next year, you’ll be a shoe-in to win, because you will have had WAY more time than everyone else to plan! 7. Ask your parents to let you cook dinner. They’ll be so impressed that you’re helping out that they may give you back some privileges sooner. (And if they don’t, this sure beats sitting around counting the fibers in your rug…) 8. Write a note to your parents about what you’ve learned. Okay, so this one isn’t really fun. But this totally increases your odds of getting off sooner. I did this once when my parents grounded me for coming home late, and they said they were SUPER impressed by how I “took responsibility for my error in judgment.” It wasn’t an error in judgment…I was just having a TON of fun with Chloe and Zoey and totally forgot to call. It could happen to anyone! But saying that would SO not help my case! That’s all I got. Anyone else have any suggestions for what to do when you’re grounded??