Lanette’s Blog: An Important Lesson

It’s been a couple weeks now so I can take most of the emotion out of this story.

My beautiful boys and I went to the Agora Art Fair on a gorgeous weekend not long ago. We stopped by to see Kris Quackenbush, who is an amazing artist, and my five-year-old, Everett, fell in love with one of the glass pendants she had for sale. We ooh’d and aah’d over it and then walked back to the kids art area so they could decorate some rubber duckies. We ended up having a great time and then it was time to go.

The next afternoon, I was doing laundry and found the glass pendant in the pocket of Everett’s shorts. I was horrified. I put the rest of the laundry away and tried to sort out what my next move was going to be. I went downstairs to the kitchen island where Everett was eating lunch and just held out my hand with the pendant in it. He said, “Isn’t it beautiful, Mom? I just love it.”

I had to agree with him on that, but my son was now a retail thief, so I had to nip this one in the bud. I told him that he couldn’t just take things, and that this belongs to someone else. Since he snuck it and stuck it in his pocket, I knew he was well aware that it was wrong. His question for me was, “But Mom, I love it. Why shouldn’t it be mine?”

It’s crazy, because as much as I tried to prepare myself, I really came up with nothing. NOTHING!! Other than, ‘”Everett, you can’t just take things,” which was said to us a million times when we were kids, and was effective officially zero times. So I got in touch with Kris and I told her that we were coming out to see her, and that she couldn’t be her usual sweet, kind self. I said she needed to be firm so I wouldn’t be visiting my child in jail in the near future.

Everett walked in, held out the pendant, and said, “I stole this from you, but I want to give it back. I hope you won’t call the police.” Kris was amazing! And I’ll forever be grateful to her for the time she spent with him. He did try to take a gemstone from his classroom after his Ready, Set, Go conference, but then caught himself and gave it back to his teacher.

I’m hoping this is the end of his rap sheet. I’m reminded once again that parenting is not for the faint of heart.