Parenting Dilemma

So what happened? Today my parents, the kids, and I went shopping.  We went into a store and Stephen picked out a little $1 item. He carried this little item around the store the whole time. Checking out was a little chaotic trying to sneak Christmas presents past the kids. Needless to say with all of the distractions, Stephen's $1 item did not get paid for. After the kids and I got home, Stephen mentioned that he had walked out of the store without me paying for the item. One cause was he had a huge meltdown while leaving the store with my parents.

So what to do? It wasn't his fault he walked out with the item. I didn't want him to feel the burden of the action - he is only 3. But I did want to make him understand that we can't just take things. The balance of teaching a lesson, while allowing my child to keep his innocence was a difficult one. He did realize though that we hadn't paid for the item. I have been stressed about my decision all afternoon, but at bedtime tonight I was richly blessed that the decision was the right one.

So what did I do? After rest time, Stephen asked about playing with the item. I told him that we couldn't play with it because we had not paid for it. I explained that the adults hadn't been paying attention and us walking out with item was not his fault. I wasn't mad, upset, or disappointed in him. We had a talk that the item was taken on accident, but if we didn't take it back and pay for it then it would be stealing. Stephen and I bundled back up and went back to the store. We went up to the lady at customer service and told her we had accidentally taken the object. Then Stephen gave her the dollar bill for the item. On the way we talked about God and his commands to us. This lead to Moses and the ten commandments. When we got home, we sat down with his Bible and read the ten commandments.

So what made it worth it? Tonight at bedtime we were talking about what we were learned today. Stephen told me that he was thankful he learned about stealing and the ten commandments. The guilt and the stress of the whole event almost completely melted away.