Last week, Katie's school was having a sale in the library of small, reasonably priced gift items that most kids would be able to afford for their parents or siblings. For just a few dollars, there was a lot to choose from. Katie took money from her own piggy bank so that she could buy things for Natalie and us. I was so happy for her that she had picked them out just for us and was planning to use money that she'd earned to buy them.
So she bought them. And one of the leaders of the after-school program, Ms. G, helped her wrap them.
And then one of her friends stole one of the gifts and took it home to pass off as his own.
Katie was furious. She didn't know at first where it had gone. One of the other after-school leaders, Ms. P, saw our friend stick it in his backpack when his mom came to get him. Then Katie was distraught. How would she get this back, this special gift she'd picked out for Daddy? She sobbed all the way home. This happens to be a family we know pretty well from our church and from many years at pre-school, etc, so I was a little miffed myself. But I told Katie to give him a chance to return it, and if he didn't the next day, then we'd call his mom. (Personally, I was dreading this sort of confrontation.)
Unbeknownst to me, Ms. G and Ms. P conferred after Katie left in tears that afternoon, and they called our friend's mom. Mom was extremely upset with her son for doing this, and to someone they've known for so long! The gift was returned the next day, along with a handwritten apology card to Katie. He said in there that he learned his lesson. We ran into his mom that afternoon, too, and she apologized as well. We've forgiven them, but Katie still talks about this situation.
Katie has learned to keep better track of her things, to not let them out of her sight for too long with others around, and, sadly, learned that you can't always trust people who are your friends. People do bad things sometimes, and I'm glad this has all ended relatively well for something that was so upsetting.
Her friend learned not to swipe things that aren't his, and also that he needs to tell his mom the truth when she already knows it from her phone call from Ms. G. He was totally busted!
Still friends, but I don't think Katie will let him close to her stuff ever again!
Ugh, that's rotten. I doubt the boy will ever forget this, and I'm glad it was resolved so quickly. Hopefully learning this lesson at such an early age will prevent him making more mistakes later. It sounds like Katie is learning to be "wise as a serpent, innocent as a dove." As we know, good friends are truly priceless, and I'm glad the friendship wasn't destroyed, even though it won't be the same.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! There are a lot of lessons in this incident. And it was so nice of those two ladies to inform that child's mother about what he did.
ReplyDeleteI hope that little boy learned his lesson.