Joshua and the Forgotten Spectacles

This morning, shortly after Joshua got on the bus, I noticed that he had left his glasses at home again. I texted his bus driver and asked her to please let Joshua know that I would bring his glasses to the school office (so that Joshua wouldn't fret and need to make a call home)... I brought his glasses to his school, and waited in the van while Dustin ran them into the office...

When I got home, I had to call the school about something else. I asked the secretary if Joshua had seen the note I'd attached to his glasses case.

He had. And apparently he wasn't impressed.

The note read: "Dear Joshua, This time it'll cost you. Love, Mommy. xoxo."


Well, he shook in his boots all day long.  Well, not really all day long, but as soon as he got home I asked him how well he could see today.  He paused and got a goofy "You caught me" grin on his face, and remembering the note, he said, "Mommy, how much money do I have to pay you?"


My answer?


"Oh sweetie, you don't have to pay me MONEY... but you can unload the entire dishwasher for me!"  (Normally, Dustin does have of it.)


Next time the penalty will be more harsh.  He didn't like he penalty, but he was a good sport.  He agreed that the penalty was appropriate and sufficient.


Some would argue that a better lesson would be to not bring his glasses to school at all, and let him suffer through the day.  I wanna beg to differ on that one - he wouldn't have learned anything school-oriented at all for not being able to see, and would have ended up with a headache - which would have affect the tasks he had to take care of at home later in the day.


This way, he knows that the school secretary saw the note (I had taped it to the outside of his glasses case).  He was able to read the smartboard in school today and do all his schoolwork properly. And, he got to think all day long about what the payment would be.  Then when he got home, he had to spend an amount of time doing extra work relative in quantity to the amount of time I had to take out of my day to drive to the school.  The other kids got to play while he worked.


Paying me money would've been too easy.  And yes, next time it'll be the whole dishwasher as well as sweeping under the table, then WASHING under the table, by hand!!  (Believe me, with 3 messy children at the table, it gets kinda gross under there in a hurry...)