We went to the library this afternoon, "Dinos To Go" by Sandra Boynton in hand.
I instructed Annabelle that she was going to return the book to the librarian and tell the librarian herself that she had colored in the book. I told her that if she refused to tell the librarian herself that we would return all of the books that we checked out yesterday. Was that mean? I needed to threaten to take away something to make her follow through. Otherwise, she may have just stood next to me and not said a thing. I was so very proud of her! She admitted that she had colored the book, and she showed the librarian where she had colored the book (on the front and the back). I actually hadn't even noticed that she had colored the front of the book until we left for the library.
We got the perfect librarian for Annabelle's lesson! The librarian was in her late 50's or early 60's, and she responded accordingly. She even had me fooled as I started to fear that she was going to make us buy another book!
The librarian said, "Oh no." She started flipping through the pages to check for additional damage. I am sure she was just putting on a show so that Annabelle would learn her lesson. After she looked at the book, she said, "That will be 50 cents."
So, I paid the librarian and told Annabelle that I would loan her the 50 cents and she could pay me back using money from her piggy bank.
Annabelle ventured off at this point and brought back a video. The librarian said, "Are you planning to check out more books?" She asked because she had just scanned my library card and had it on file. I told her, "No. I told her we were only here to return the book." The librarian seemed surprised, but we started talking, and she said, "That is an important lesson to teach her."
She did ask if she could give Annabelle a sticker, and I told her she could. I felt like this let Annabelle know that the librarian was not mad at her, and it was better to tell her that she had colored in the book than to just return it.
Annabelle did reimburse me for the 50 cents without hesitation later this evening. I have no way of knowing if she truly "got it," but I guess only time will tell. It was definitely one of my proudest moments as a mom because I felt like I taught her a very important lesson regarding taking care of things that we borrow from others.
For the record, it only ended up costing 20 cents for the damage. I already had a 30 cents late fee on the account, so she offset the 30 cents against the 50 cents leaving the 20 cents for damage.
3 comments:
Mommy did a good job and so did Annabelle!! Do you know how long it will take her to replace the 50 cents with the pennies she finds? Maybe she could find bigger coins somewhere in the future!! Seems like Mommy remembers her having to pay for something in the past!!! Of course nothing hurts more than finding how much was taken out of your first paycheck for taxes at your first job!! What am I working for? Just what is left!!
You put that thirty cents back into her piggy bank and tell her part of that was your fault for not returning the books on time! Just what did your Mother teach you anyway. If you don't tell her, I will!
I think this lesson will be engrained in Annabelle's mind for sometime. I'm proud of you for how you handled the situation. I'd be willing to bet that most parents would shrug the damage off and not say anything (not to mention have their child admit fault and apologize).
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