A Hard Lesson

Today we were faced with one of many of life's hard lessons for Stephanie. Tonight while at dinner I was questioning Chris about who was on the answering machine. He told me that my friend G. had called just wondering if we had accidentally come home with a certain ring that had been given to her daughter L. last week by her brother. This prompted the whole thing and here is the background... The girls and I went to G.'s house yesterday for a 'play date'. The kids all played really well together and G. and I were able to talk for most of the 3 hours...amazing, huh? Anyway, when we got home I discovered that Stephanie had returned home with some lip gloss in her pocket that did not belong to her. I immediately confiscated it and reprimanded her for taking things that don't belong to her etc. I then proceeded to question her about what else was in her pockets to which she exclaimed that all she had were her hair bows(which she did pull out and show me). Trusting her, I then dropped it. So, tonight when I heard about the phone call I immediately asked Stephanie if she knew where Mrs. G's ring was. This is a whole other story as I thought the ring belonged to my friend and not her daughter and that perhaps Stephanie had been playing somewhere she shouldn't have. Ok, sorry for the side track. Anyway, Stephanie tells me that yes the ring is upstairs. At this point I am very angry and I immediately send Stephanie upstairs to get it. When she returns I tell her that she has to call and apologize and then daddy and I will decide about her other punishment for lying to me yesterday about the contents of her pockets. Stephanie called and apologized thru many tears and then I got on the phone. G. was of course not mad and totally understood, but I was of course mortified. Side note...G. would not have particulary noticed the loss of this piece of 'play jewelry' except that her son had just been out of town and brought this back just last week as a gift for his little sister. You see, my girls have a tendency to fill pockets and pocket books with whatever they want and then I have to empty them later. This often happens while playing with the girls across the street and we always have to have 'the talk' about not taking other people's stuff. I'm not sure that this is always innocent as I am sure they are often trying to be a little sneaky. Anyway, this was a lesson that was very hard to learn for Stephanie and equally as hard for Chris and I to teach. Let's just say we were all glad to see this lesson learned over with...it would be nice if we didn't have to reteach it. Fat chance though!