So today was a first for me. Every Mom sometimes plays play date police. You know, monitoring the screaming and yelling and the mean talk, the usual play date mayhem but today was a first. My daughter's play date friend was caught with stuff that didn't belong to her and then tried to say it was hers. Here is how it all went down.
My daughter's friend arrived at our house a little before 1 o'clock pm. She was dropped off by her mother. The play date went fine. The girls played well, all three of them. Both my daughters were involved in this play date. After about an hour everyone decided that we should go to the park so we did. We got to the park and the girls started to play on the monkey bars, trying to do tricks. They were hanging upside down and that's when it happened. From the friends pocket dropped a case of eye shadow. My oldest daughter said " Hey that looks just like Emm's." (Emm is my youngest daughter.) To which the friend said "No it's not. It's mine. I have one just like it." To which my daughter said "No that looks just like Emm's." So I decided that I needed to get involved, especially when I saw the friend trying to slip it back into her pocket and walk away. I said "Let me see that." The little girl tried to hide it in her pocket and walk away from me. So I insisted. When she showed it to me it was immediately apparent that it was not hers. The eye shadow case had my kids initials written in nail polish on the lid. I told the friend that I was going to have to take it back and everyone continued to play.
Now, fast forward about 10 minutes. And guess what happened? Ya, something else fell out of her pocket. It was just a little trinket but it wasn't really the fact that it was just a little toy, but rather that it didn't belong to her, she didn't ask to take it or even play with it and she was trying to conceal it in her pocket. My oldest daughter said "Hey, are you trying to steal our stuff?" The friend said "NO". To which my daughter said, "Well, then why do you have all our stuff in your pockets?" Good question I say.
Now I didn't make a big stink about it at the time. I took back the stuff and the play date continued. I was stunned to be honest. I started to think back on all the times this little girl had been over to our house. I started to think that maybe I didn't handle it the right way. Should I have been more direct with this little friend? Should I have said something to her mother when I dropped her off at home?
What do you think? What would you have done?
I wouldn't have said much to the child but I definately would have told the parents. If the parents dont know, how can they address the problem with their child? How old is the child in question?
ReplyDeleteThe child is 7 years old. I don't really know her parents, I have only spoken to the mother briefly. Many of the previous play dates happened while I was at work so I don't know if this has ever happened.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if I should think this is an oversight by this little girl. You know, she forgot that she put the stuff in her pocket. Kids do that.
I don't know.