Honesty

Recently I took T and Lu to the store with me to do some grocery shopping.

It was late and I was tired.

So were they.  We'd had a long day of football.  Getting everyone and everything here, there and everywhere makes for short tempers and cranky kiddos.

Thankfully there were pumpkins on sale out front.

After looking at their pleading faces I told them to pick their favorites and one for J.  They looked, rolled, touched, decided and re-decided until they found 3 very perfect pumpkins.  Those pumpkins brightened the mood considerably!

We loaded them in the cart and did the rest of our shopping. When I got to the check out, rather than hefting them up on the belt, I reminded him we had them so he could charge me.

He forgot.

After I paid and we got out to car to load everything into the trunk, I had the notion to look over the receipt.

I hadn't been charged.

T finished loading and looked at me for the keys to open the doors.

I took both their hands and we walked back inside, with me explaining that I had to pay for the pumpkins because I hadn't been charged for them.

The Customer Service associate smiled and thanked me for coming back in.

The same sort of thing has happened a few times before and I've made a big deal of talking about honesty. I want my kids to know the importance of being honest in big things and in little things.  I've used those times as teaching moments.

This time I didn't make a big deal of it.

I just did it.

The coolest thing is they didn't make a big deal of it either.

They didn't fight.  They didn't argue or whine.  They didn't even question me.

It wasn't a huge decision that we pondered the moral implications over. We just went back to pay because that's what we do.  I was proud of my kids for being on board.