For her date with Daddy, Ellie went to the Denver Science Museum. They had a blast, all the way up until she attempted to steal a stuffed deer from the gift shop. Yes, our sweet Ellie tried to steal something!! Daddy gave her enough time to see if she'd think better of her plan, but they got all the way up to the door before he finally admitted he was on to her.
I'm told he kept his cool and did not get angry, but rather told her that he was terribly disappointed in her and would have to talk to Mommy about a consequence. Once they got home, it was very apparent that Ellie felt ashamed of her behavior.
She told me what she did, with great big tears in her eyes, and then informed me that she didn't want to talk about it anymore but needed to be alone for a while.
The following day we told her what her consequence would be.
Since she tried to steal the stuffed animal because she wanted yet another to add to the many many stuffed animals she already has at home... we decided to take them all away. We took every stuffed animal except for one and put them into a trash bag in our closet. She will be able to earn them back every time she fills up a line on her chore chart.
She was devastated but understood. At first she didn't hear that we had agreed to let her keep one, and she was terrified about the idea of giving up Bun Bun. Yes, after all these years, Bun Bun is still her most favorite. The first thing that came to her mind when faced with the idea of having **NO** stuffed toys to snuggle with, was Bun Bun.
In the end, she snuggled with Bun Bun as her one animal she got to keep. By the end of the day, she had already earned another animal back by filling up her chore chart.
What do you think? Too harsh? What would you have done?
No comments:
Post a Comment