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Yep, you read that right - one of the princesses is now a criminal. What a validation of my parenting skills, huh?
So we're in the grocery store and Princess Elizabeth asks if we can get some of those individually wrapped Brach's caramels. (She's really into chewy foods now, because she's dying to lose her first tooth - one of her classmates just did, and she thinks it's the coolest thing ever.)
(Side note: said classmate got $5 - five bucks - from the Tooth Fairy for that lost tooth. What the heck?! That's just great - now I have to somehow explain to Princess E that for some reason I have yet to figure out yet, the Tooth Fairy doesn't always pay everyone $5 per tooth. I'm so not paying more than $1 per tooth - and I think even that's a little much. Am I just being cheap?)
I digress - anyway, I tell Princess E no on the caramels, and we go on our way. A few aisles later, I notice the Princess trying to put a wrapper in a trash can - and she's chewing something. As soon as I say her name, she bursts into tears (I have a feeling she's not quite cut out to be a career criminal.) Yep, you guessed it - she took a caramel and tried her darndest to sneak it past me.
So here we go - me, the cart chock full o' groceries and Princess G, and a sobbing Princess E - taking the walk of shame to the nearest checker at the front of the store. Yep, I'm that horribly mean mom who makes her kid turn the wrapper in, confess their crime and swear never, ever to do it again. The grandmotherly checker - God bless her - did her part to convince Princess E of the gravity of the crime, although she wavered a little seeing the sobbing face of the sad, totally ashamed little redhead - it was pretty pathetic.
Of course, it didn't end there - when Daddy got home, he and Princess E went to the office for one of his already-infamous "talks," which wrapped up with E asking God to forgive her at the dinnertime prayer. At which point, of course, I got all teary-eyed because she was so dang sweet and sad and truly remorseful about it.
I have a feeling this princess won't even jaywalk, much less steal, again. Of course, I also have a feeling Princess G, having a completely different personality, will do pretty much whatever she can get away with while giggling hysterically, flashing her big blue eyes and flipping her blond hair - but I'm also hoping to get my Prozac prescription significantly upped before I let G out of the grocery cart.
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6 comments:
If it makes you feel any better, I did the same thing as E. when I was about four and my mother did the same as you and here I am at 37, never have forgotten and never stole a thing again. You did the right thing and, if this is a good thing, she'll grow up to be something like me. HA!
When I was five or six, I did the same thing. My mom's office had a candy basket (take a candy bar, leave some money in its place). I took a Snickers and being an unemployed kindergartner, did not leave some money. My mom saw the candy stuffed in my coat pocket as we were getting in the car to go home. She made me return the candy to the office manager, and I've had a guilty conscience every since.
Yes, Susan, but you had a concience -- which is more than I can say for some of our generation!
Good to hear that two of the most ethical people I know had sticky fingers once as a young'un. :-) Hopefully she'll turn out as well as y'all have - I'd be thrilled!
I was quite a bit older than your little princess, but it still makes me sick to recall the time I got caught stealing a pack of baseball cards in seventh grade. I had no remorse until the store manager called my mom. After that, I felt so completely and utterly awful that I could never steal again. I'm sure your daughter will carry this experience with her.
Wow. I am feeling waves of guilt wash over me right now. I didn't steal candy, oh no, I stole a Barbie Jean Skirt from my older cousin. I was never caught, but about a year after the incident--after a particularly "fire and brimstone" Bible reading at family prayers--I crawled out of bed at midnight to "confess" to my parents. Oh my, what tears and repentance, you would have thought I was Judas. I did have to return the super cool Barbie skirt, and the kicker was, after a year of a heavy conscience, my cousins didn't even remember they used to have it.
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