Life's Temptations

Here the facts are. I won't mix emotions and facts. It's a toxic mix this week and I don't want to have regrets.

1. She's eating weird things again. Last night, she licked dinner plates clean that had been sitting in the sink since Sunday night. This morning, it was random trash from the floor of the van. Tonight, it was another pencil. She's taking the mega-vitamins as the doctor ordered but it's not helping.

2. She's stealing again. I just found a pencil in her agenda that I knew didn't belong to her. She admitted to taking it from the teacher's desk while the teacher was in the hallway. When I asked her if she would have stolen something from the teacher's purse, she said, "I couldn't find her purse."

3. She has a new binder in her bag that I didn't buy her. She said that she ask her teacher for it because I wouldn't buy her a new one.

4. Her social studies test says across the bottom, "I love Mrs. Zomer." When I asked her how that got there, she said that she and another student were talking about who they would marry when they got in high school.

My sense of humor has been sapped dry. My best attempt at parenting tonight came when I served her a bowl of pencils for a bedtime snack. As soon as I did it, I felt miserable. How old am I? That's something one of my students would do! Frustration simply overwhelmed my senses. I simply don't know what to do with her. If she clearly shows that she's hiding something, doesn't that indicate that she knows that it is wrong? If she has the ability to discern right and wrong and understands that wrong choices hold consequences, why does she keep doing the same darn wrong things? Doctors don't offer many suggestions beyond removing things from her environment that might tempt her to make wrong choices. Um? Let's see. How in the world would I do that? Reality is filled with temptations. In fact, without temptations, how would we ever develop the ability to choose between right and wrong? Temptations are a daily part of life whether you're talking about eating an entire bag of Oreos or stealing a pencil. There comes a point of accountability when you have to assume responsibility for your actions - good or bad.

So, as we get closer to Thanksgiving, I will continue to be very thankful that Dasha has a stomach of steel that can tolerate staples, graphite, erasers, and petrified crumbs. I will also be very thankful that she has a pencil fetish and not a jewelry one. I will also continue to count the many blessing that come with having next week off! Whew!

Good night, all.