Preston is a very easy child to raise. He stays under the radar and really tries to do what it right. (Most of the time) Recently I have realized that he has an amazing talent at telling lies that I believe. I have caught him a few times, but he is good. This past week I had a suspicion that he had been lying to me about stealing some money. I confronted him twice telling him that if he told the truth now it would be easier than if I found out. Both times he denied stealing so vehemently that I believed him. The mother radar was still up though and today the school called me concerning a payment he made for a toy called speed stacks. I realized immediately that he had stole money to buy this item and had to decide what to do. I called Dale and being the great dad that he is, he immediately left work and together we went to Preston's school to let him know how disappointed we were in him. He took it hard and when we confronted him with the money he looked at his dad and said, "I don't want to tell, it is too hard." He finally admitted to stealing and he helped us make an appropriate punishment. It was a hard lesson to teach because you want your children to come to you when they make mistakes, but you also need to affix an appropriate punishment so that it does not happen again. When our half an hour talk was over, he went back to class and came home from school as if nothing happened. He will pay back the money and follow through with the other punishments. I hope we got the balance right. It is a lesson he must learn now, because if we don't teach him a correctional facility will someday.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
LESSON ON LYING
Posted by Crystal at 4:25 PM
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8 comments:
One of the hardest things about being a parenet is dealing situations like these. Preston is a good kid! And with amazing parents like you and Dale, he is going to be just fine. Look at it as a growing and learning experience for you, but most importantly for Preston. Boy, I am glad you are going through these things first, so I can watch and learn! :))
I bet this will be an experience he remembers and never repeats.
Crystal, I think it sounds like you and Dale handled it just right. You are amazing parents and I'll be willing to bet Logan will NEVER forget it. Ask me about the time I stole candy from the grocery store when I was about his age once - maybe I'll blog about it. How my father handled it is the reason I'll never ever ever steal. :)
Or Preston - I'm terrible about names. And I can't edit my comment!!! :) Sorry!!
I have the same concerns about making it easy or ok for them to come to me or Mike when the boys make a mistake, but I also want to have appropriate punishments so they will learn. I guess if we teach and discipline with love, they will still feel safe in telling us the truth. Anyway, good post! It sounds like you handled it so well!
One of your siblings was really good at lying. One more story was caught in a lie and having done everything to curtail this activity I went to the scriptures. We read together every scripture that talked about lying. "Let the lying lips be put to silence", "I hate and abhor lying", "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord", "Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell", you get the drift. It even scared even me. It took a few days and was a good cure.
Preston is such a good kid and you are such good parents! Every kid does things they shouldn't, and it sounds like you did a really good job not freaking out over it but teaching him why what he did was wrong. Send all your kids my love, we haven't seen them for so long!
Woah, I think you handled that just right! It is so hard to inflict a punishment on a child because you want them to be happy. But in the long run, that's what you are assuring when you have them suffer consequences and punishment for what they do. Having felt the "pull of world," we can all understand why he did what he did. That's for the excellent example of parenting!
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