So today one of my little cupcakes came home from school with a couple little LEGO figures that belong to the classroom.

I saw her playing with them in the car & I was pretty sure we didn’t own them.

She actually showed them to me when we got home. I said something like “are these ours?” Or “we don’t have any of these do we?”

She immediately owned up & said she brought them from school. She also explained a pretty elaborate plan as to how she was gonna put them back tomorrow.

Well shoot.

Frankly I was tempted to just let her follow through with her plan. It seemed well thought out.

But I knew this was one of those life lessons & I needed to put my big girl panties on & talk her through it.

I asked her if was ok for her teacher to come to our house & take one of her toys.

She definitely did not like that idea.

I told her she would be putting them back in her backpack & taking them back to school tomorrow. She would also apologize to her teacher before returning them.

Well she just lost it.

Had a complete come apart right there in the living room.

Absolutely would not let me comfort her at all.

I guess I was the bad guy.

I had kind pictured talking thought the problem.

Then snuggling.

Then going back having a good afternoon.

That was not the case.

Things have finally settled down enough for me to write this.

I’m afraid there will be more tears in the morning when I remind her to give the items back & apologize.

Looking forward to that.

I am refraining from emailing the teacher & confessing for her. Smoothing the way if you will.

I have decided to just let it play out.

See if she remembers to apologize & return the items on her own.

I might email the teacher later tomorrow to see if she followed through.

Or I might just wait & see how it goes without me getting involved.

Part of me feels bad, like she’s too little to do this on her own.

But she was smart enough to grab the toys without getting caught AND had a plan to return them all on her own.

I hate that she was so sneaky.

But our kids are going to mess up.

They are going to make bad choices.

I’m just thankful we are making these choices at 5, not 35.

They are supposed to fail at home where we can help them through it.

And honestly I fail on a daily basis.

I might not take something that doesn’t belong to me, but I fail none the less.

And I am forgiven.

Every.Single.Time.

I am so thankful for forgiveness. And mercy & grace.

I’m also thankful for little hearts & minds that I can help ( hopefully) as they make their way through this life.