Ketchup Yogurt Yum!

Yesterday was an early release day at school so I was going to have to hold things together by myself for a couple of hours until two PCAs could get here. When I do absolutely nothing else I can do this. When the bus pulled up to drop the kids off I immediately knew something was up. Hanna is always the first one off the bus and in the house. She was the last one to get off today. After I got the wheelchairs situated and everyone headed in the right direction I went inside. Hanna had already run downstairs with her coat, backpack, and wet shoes still on. I got the other three kids to take their shoes off and hang up the coats. I then found Paul a couple of cars and got Lauren and Allen started on putting away the clean dishes. I figured that would give me a few minutes to see what Hanna was up to.

I went downstairs and directed her back upstairs to get the wet shoes off first and then hang up her coeat. She was steaming about something and being less then cooperative. I took her folder out and read it.

What she did just cracks me up, but being her mom I can not let her in on that bit of information. She was caught stealing ketchup from the school cafeteria, stirring it into the yogurt from her lunchbox, and eating the disgusting mixture. I closed the folder, said "really now Hanna", and went to direct Allen with hauling baskets of clean laundry upstairs. I was not going to get into a shouting match with her or even try to deal with the situation until she calmed down because I know that will lead to more trouble.

Hanna went into this meltdown, screaming that I was a dumb mom because I read her stuff and apparently I am not supposed to do that because it is only her business. Her teacher is the dumbest teacher because she is not supposed to write this stuff down. I am no longer bothered by being the dumb mom, that is better then some of the other things she has been known to call me and I am pretty sure her teacher is not getting to rattled about that either. I am overjoyed that this teacher is communicating honestly with me about what goes on at school. I know Hanna has behavior at times that is not appropriate but until now no one was filling me in on the details. I need to know what she is doing so that the same rules apply all the time for her. She does best with consistent expectations.

The fact that her teacher made her responsible for stealing the ketchup and had her pay for it with money she had earned was just what needed to happen. The next thing we have to work on is placing the anger where it really belongs. Hanna was really upset with herself because she got caught doing something that she knew she was not supposed to be doing. Neither her teacher nor I are responsible for her behavior, She does not feel that she made a bad choice all she is worried about is the fact that she got caught. We have a bit of work to do in order to get her to understand this.

I will not be putting yogurt in Hanna`s lunchbox any time soon. I hope she does not decide to steal ketchup to put on anything else.