Drove to grocery store twice this evening. Had to go back with the MC so he could apologize for taking the piece of taffy (and pay for it -and another for his brother - out of his allowance). He was pretty somber. We talked a lot about getting caught and how that can actually be a good thing, because when people don't get caught, they sometimes keep making bigger and bigger mistakes until they get into trouble they can't get out of with apologies. Hopefully making a big deal out of this 3 cent act of snitching will prevent bigger events in the future. I think we spent close to 60 cents in gas for 6 cents worth of candy! But it wasn't the candy we were buying obviously, it was an investment in a child with an honest future. Hopefully it will reap dividends. I was proud though because I stayed calm the whole time and I framed the situation in terms of helping him fix a mistake instead of punishing him. "We can solve this," etc. He would have completely melted down with any other approach, but I was able to get him out from under his hiding place under the kitchen table to admit what he had done and then deal with it. So I must have done something right.
I didn't tell him until the ride home that he wouldn't be getting stories tonight. It was already past 8:00 when we got home so the logical consequence was that he used up story time in a return trip to the grocery store.
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