Life Lessons...already?

So just as I post about having neighbor kids come over to play and liking it...not so much anymore. Here's why.....Griff does little chores and earns money to buy his Thomas the Train toys. He does chores for his Mema and Pepa and while we were in Arizona he picked fruit and did some other things for my Mom. She had forgotten to pay him during our visit so she sent him money in the mail and he was thrilled. When he gets money he tosses his dollar bills in his night stand drawer and counts it every once and a while. I realized just recently that his money wasn't in his drawer anymore. Griff had no idea where it was and Kason hadn't moved it. Then a light bulb went off in my head. Maybe the little neighbor boy took it??

I hate to blame the kid but I am pretty darn sure he took the money. He is the only kid who has been in Griff's room unattended lately. I do remember a day that he abruptly left and I thought it was really weird. So poor Griff and I had to have a little chat about stealing and how it is wrong, etc. He seemed to really understand what I was saying. We also talked about how we need to put money in a safe place so it doesn't get lost or stolen. After we talked about stealing he said to me "He just borrow my money. He bring it back." I had to explain to him that he probably won't bring the money back, that it was all gone and he would have to do more jobs to earn his money back.

I feel so bad about his hard earned money being gone. I hated explaining "stealing" to him and how it is not a nice thing to do. A little epiphany came over me and I realized that I can't protect my kids. They will have to learn hard life lessons and those lessons are just a part of living. I wish I could protect them from the awful things in this life but I can't. Sometimes I hate the thought of bringing any more children into this world. I will do my absolute best to teach my children wrong from right and show them the path that will bring them the truest happiness. I hope and pray that my sweet boy's will never go astray, I can't bear the thought.

In light of the money stealing we talked about piggy banks! Piggy banks have always been a fun concept for me so off to Target we went looking for one. To our surprise they had a whole end cap full of piggy banks and we found one that matches his room perfectly and will for sure keep his money safe.