Expensive lessons

About a week ago Hannah broke our toilet seat by standing on it and then jumping off. She had already broken one a while back doing this same thing. Alan decided that it would be good for her to have to pay for it so that she won't be tempted to do it again. He talked to her on Friday night and asked her who she thought should have to pay for a new toilet seat. Mom? No. Eden? No. Grandpa? No. Then who? Hannah. He even gave the example that if he got in a car accident, he would have pay for the damage, wouldn't he?

It was a hard night. She cried and cried and didn't want to have to give up her money. But we have stuck to our guns.

To drive the point home......

As a family we went to a house warming party on Saturday night. We had a great time but it was getting late so we decided to head out. While I was finishing a conversation, Alan took all the kids to the car. A few minutes later he came back in and told one of our friends, Amy Hutchinson, that he had just hit her truck as we was backing up. It is a midnight blue color, it was a very dark night, and he didn't see it. Unfortunately he actually did quite a bit of damage ($1625), breaking her side view mirror and denting her door in a couple of places, and breaking our tail light. Alan (of course) took full responsibility and made sure that Hannah heard that he was going to pay for what he had done, even though Amy was trying to downplay it and kept saying that we would work it out later.

On the way home Hannah asked if Dad was going to have to pay for it. He explained that Amy would get her truck fixed and then she would give us a bill and Dad would pay her the amount of the bill. She said, "Wow, Dad that is going to be expensive!"

The things we do to drive a point home with our kids!!