For a while now, I've been meaning to write about our neighborhood—about the dichotomy that has presented itself in the fact that our immediate area doesn't have any fences. In theory, I love this. It gives a great open feel to things, whereas in our last neighborhood, everyone had fences and I felt like I never saw my neighbors. And my kids can run all over and play with tons of kids and it's great.
Alas, there is a flipside. Because there are no fences, my kids don't always feel the need to tell me where they are going. And so, they'll tell me they're jumping on the next door neighbor's trampoline. When I go out a while later to check on them, they're nowhere to be found. This scenario happened on Monday. T ended up at a different house, playing with two of his friends. We'll call them T2 and C. The three boys (apparently T2 was the mastermind) decided it would be fun to paint things with spray paint. Like, say, the stucco and brick of C's house. And the side of his dad's old Mustang. And the driveway.
Freakin' awesome.
The real kicker is that I didn't find out until later that night, after I had taken all five kids to the pool with no other adults with me. I did it by myself and everyone survived and it was actually fun. I came home, feeling good about the world, to a message on my answering machine from C's mom. And the good feelings went away. C's mom, to her credit, has been amazingly kind and understanding about the whole thing. Much more so than I would be, if they had done something like that to my house.
After we sufficiently reprimanded T, we sent him to bed. The next morning, I had him empty the contents of his piggy bank. I took it to one of those Coinstar machines, and put everything in it. Then, we took the $20 that came out of it over to C's mom last night. T was sad, but he seemed ok with giving all of his money to help pay for the (no doubt) expensive cleaning materials they'll need. And, all three boys are going to help clean the driveway (with soap and water, because we don't want them to be around the toxic cleaners that will actually get the spray paint off). And at this point, I don't know when I'll be ok with T playing with friends again.
I'm really trying to see this as a teaching moment and hoping, hoping, hoping that this isn't a harbinger of badness to come.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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4 comments:
I'm impressed that T had $20 to part with. Bam can never seem to hold onto his monthly allowance for more than two minutes. Good luck. I hope this isn't the hint of things to come either. Maybe this will teach the owner of the spray paint that it was too easily reached by a gaggle of 5 yr olds? I hope that when T regains friend privileges, hopefully not too long after he earns his eagle project:), that he will have grown some sense and that in the meantime you will be blessed with the patience not to throttle him.
Yeah teaching moments, sometimes I just wonder who is this moment teaching more too? Me or my kid?
I'm trying to decide whether or not "nowhere to be bound" was a typo. I'm guessing not.
I am sick to my stomach over this...those little rascals.
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