pockets

Last Saturday, Brett was sick, so I left him home with a sleeping Ryan & took Jacob & Luke with me for some quick shopping. We went to a couple of stores in the mall, including Old Navy. On the way home, we picked up Kincaid's burgers (yummy!). As Luke jumped out of the truck, I noticed something in his pocket. I asked him & he froze. I pulled it out & it was a bar of Old Navy soap. He said, "I think that just fell in there..." Ya, those tricky bars of soap have a way of doing that.... I said, "Luke, you stole that! You have to pay for stuff, you can't just take it!" He looks guilty, "Sorry, I thought it was too much money." So later that day, he's showing Daddy this nifty little gadget that I'd never seen before. I took it from him, & sure enough, Old Navy. It was a magnifying glass with a light, & he was very proud of it. So, Daddy helped me explain this "we don't steal" thing to our almost 5 yr old, yet again. Daddy kept trying to make him say "never lie, cheat, or steal" apparently something he was told a bunch growing up, but Luke didn't want to. I had to agree with Luke, it was goofy, but what do I know..... when Daddy's helping with discipline, I just support him..................
Ok, so bath time. I've got everybody in the shower & I'm picking up dirty clothes. Out falls some lip gloss. Yep, Old Navy. So apparently, while I was cluelessly distracted by my importance of paying for stuff, my child was just stuffing his pockets. Granted, stores are purposefully designed to make you pay too much for crap at the checkout, cuz you're bored & so are your kids, so they put trinkets right at child level, so that if you say no, it's a complete & total meltdown, inches from a bunch of people, & probably people with no kids who throw those judgemental looks at you, while you think, "just wait until you have these". So, you keep your kid happy for your own sanity, & they make a few extra bucks off you before you can exit their store. So if you think about it, Luke did me a favor?? Right?
Ok, so of course, I can't just let this slide. So on Monday, I put his "treasures" in a baggie, & off to Old Navy we go. I thought about calling ahead to prepare whatever poor Old Navy employee was going to be blindsided by my plight, but I didn't. Well, I should have. I asked for a manager, thinking they would be more able to help than some poor kid who didn't want to be there anyway. Not that all Old Navy managers are thrilled with their jobs, but I digress. This guy couldn't have been any LESS helpful. I've got Luke ready to say he's sorry. In the car, he had been worried that they were going to call the police, so I had to reassure him & have him understand that all he was doing was apologizing & giving the stuff back. There would be no jail for a 5 yr old. I explain to the manager what had happened, & he just looks at me. Luke says he's sorry, & the guy looks at me again. I'm thinking, "Dude! Can you help a Mother out?" He says, "Well thank you very much, I appreciate it." Ya, so do I............................
I think I still scared him enough, that we may have come to a "no stealing" understanding, but we'll see. So we went to Rainforest Cafe for my birthday lunch with my 2 youngest, which turned out to be very frightening for both of them. Every time those damn gorillas started going, Ryan would pounce on me, like a spider monkey. Luke would look around going, "Mom, I want to come sit by you, Mom, I really want to come sit by you!"
So we're off to the store for cake mixes for both Luke's cupcakes & Jacob's cake for their birthday party tomorrow. Ttfn!