A Woman's Work – Brooke Basically Blogging

 

People have told me that their children have all taken something small from the store when they were younger. A candy bar or a toy from the checkout aisle.  I never took anything from the store when I was younger.  I was a perfect child. Just saying.  When Harrison was 4 years old he took candy from Home Depot.  When we were all in the car, he began to eat his candy.  Rob and I looked at each other and we knew we didn’t buy that for him. 

Keep in mind we were in the beginning stages of living with autism.  We made it out of Home Depot and I didn’t want to go back inside.  I am not sure why we all went back in the store.  But we unpacked the kids and marched inside to the service desk. 

Harrison had to tell the manager that he took the candy without paying.  He told her, he was very sorry.  The manager was nice but she was looking at Rob and I like we were crazy. She told us Harrison was so cute and it was only candy.  Meanwhile Syd is taking all of the paint samples off of the display. While Rob is trying to put them all back.  I told the manager thank you for the compliment.  But would she think Harrison was cute when he was 16 years old and stealing from Home Depot?  I was trying to teach him that stealing was wrong.  Even if he was only 4 years old. I would not miss  an opportunity to teach him right from wrong. He learned a valuable lesson that day.

For so long Sydney couldn’t go grocery shopping with me.  Recently, she has enjoyed going shopping with me at Giant. We go early and we stick to the list.  Her school takes her on community outings. The grocery store has been a struggle lately because she likes to buy fresh flowers and that is not on the list when she goes shopping with the school. 

Friday when I picked the kids up from my parent’s house, they were ready to go when I arrived.  When me made it to the truck.  Harrison said Sydney had an extra bag.  I thought maybe it was something from school. Before I left the driveway I looked inside the shopping bag.  Sydney had four onions, an orange, and her iPad charger.  I had to think for a moment, she didn’t have any field trips today at school.  Where did this food come from?

I called mommy from the driveway and asked her if Sydney had an extra bag today.  She told me  that she gave Sydney a bag for toys. Then I asked her if she was missing onions or an orange.  She said yes.  Thank goodness she was a shoplifter from Grandma Lola and not from the grocery store. 

Harrison immediately went in big brother mode.  He told Sydney that she was shoplifting and explained to her what that was.  She told him she wanted to make chicken soup.  He told her she had to take the food back to Grandma Lola and apologize. She returned the food and apologized. Mommy told her all she had to do was ask for food. She would give it to her.  Harrison told me he remembered when he stole from Home Depot and he didn’t want that to happen to Sydney.

Later that evening Sydney acted out a skit that she watched on YouTube.  That’s where she got the idea about the bag of groceries.  I love autism.