garmana::blog

My niece is on the lamb

My niece Kylie is almost seven. She loves and does well in school, but for some reason earlier this month she was caught stealing things in her classroom. First she took a friend's charm bracelet, and then she took flowered Post-It Notes from her teacher's desk.

My sister made her return the bracelet and make a new charm bracelet to give to the little girl to show that she was sorry. She also threatened her with no gymnastics this summer if she did it again. Unfortunately those things didn't work; she took the Post-It Notes the next week.

I have to give my sister some creativity points for how she handled this. The teacher called her at work to tell her, and so Kylie didn't know firsthand that my sister knew about this. On her way home form work, my sister noticed a police officer's car at the library down the street from her house, and so she went in to see if she could talk with him. She explained what happened and asked him if he could say something to Kylie. My sister cooked up a little scenario with him, and when she came home she asked Kylie to get her books together from the library so that they could return them. When they got to the library, this is what went down:

Officer: "Excuse me, are you Kylie _______?"

Kylie: (completely shocked) "Yes, how did you know my name?"

Officer: "I know everyone's name in town. Kylie, I have to ask you something. Did you steal your friend's bracelet and something that belonged to your teacher?"

Kylie: (more nervous now) "Umm... yes. Who told you?"

Officer: "Nobody told me. As a police officer, it's my job to know whenever someone does something wrong or dangerous." (fantastic answer to a seven year old's question!)

Kylie: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Officer: "I believe you didn't do it to be mean on purpose. But I want you to promise me that you won't steal anything again. People who steal things hurt their friends' feelings, and their names go in the newspaper."

Kylie: "They do???"

Officer: They do. But you can't just promise. Adults shake hands when they really promise something, and then they can't go back on their word. I want you to make a big person's promise. Are you ready to make a big person's promise?"

Kylie: "Yes" (and she shakes his hand)

Officer: (smiling) "Great! Kylie, I'm proud of you. I know you'll keep your promise to me. You've always been a good girl."


It must have done the trick; she hasn't gotten in trouble at school once in the past two weeks. We'll see if it sticks once the shock wears off, but it definitely made an impression. If groundings and time outs don't work, you can always bring in the long arm of the law. ;-)