Weekend From Hell

I'd say my weekend sucked but that would be some kind of massive understatement. So many things went to the shitter that I'm not even sure where to start.

For the past few weeks my house has been battling sickness. One of the joys of the public school system is that there is always something nasty your children unknowingly bring home. So far this month we've had several variations of the flu, strep throat and most recently some flu strain that causes projectile vomiting and the runs. Great eh? Yup, my house smells like sewage.

Friday I took my youngest to work with me. The boss was away, she was only semi-conscious and pretty much slept all day on the couch in the bosses office. Friday night she projectiled all over the white living room carpet. Not good since the only thing she had been willing to eat was some purple juice and barbeque ribs.

Saturday started of better. We had all of the kids, and my baby seemed to be feeling much better. They were outside playing when they all decided to ask for money for candy at the store. She was told she could have some money if she finished her chores. She decided to go play at the park instead.....or so I thought.

I am making my bed when I got a phone call. "Is this K's mom? This is officer....." my heart stopped. My baby, who is 10 has been detained by the police department for shoplifting. I was pissed off and shocked.

Mr Live In's children are unfortunately famous for shoplifting. It's a joke in their family and their family has labeled them. The oldest has stolen money from his mothers wallet on several occasions....even $100 bills. He has had alot of practice in this art since stealing gum as a small child and has simply never stopped. I've never had this problem. I'm not stupid enough to blame anyone, but it generally takes a small amount of coaxing or watching to get a sidekick for this joy ride. A large part of this episode is my fault for allowing her to go with them having this information. That was my stupidity, I totally overestimated my daughters ability to walk away from a bad situation.

I get to the store and I have a hysterical child. Obviously petrified beyond belief that there are two officers there and she is guilty of a crime. I can tell by the look on her face that she thinks I am there to rescue her. That didnt happen. She starts to make excuses, starts to tell on her co-horts but I am angry and am hearing none of that. I only wanted to hear what SHE had done. She had taken two kool-aid packets and put them in her pocket while standing in line waiting for the boy to pay. Meanwhile he had opened a few packets of candy, poured them into his pockets and was shuffling through other items on the shelf. The person at the counter asked them to come over to her at which point the child with experience emptied his pockets and my daughter froze.

My children cannot lie. They suck at it and they may as well not make the effort. A look of guilt comes over their face that is unmistakeable. The clerk saw this look and promptly turned her attention to my child. She emptied her pockets on the counter and the clerk called the police. My Live Ins son leaned over to my daughter and says "They are not here yet, lets make a run for it." "Noooo," she replies, "we will only get into more trouble." Perhaps too many episodes of cops, but apparently this is the moment that her judgement kicked back in. Whew.

I'm glad that the officer's scared her, I'm glad that they treated her badly, and I'm glad that they put the holy fear of God in her little ass. This scenarios is not likely to repeat itself. I made her go back into the store and apologize to the clerk and she is now forbidden to re-enter that store EVER. A bit extreme perhaps, but I can buy my stuff elsewhere, its no big deal. I was slightly annoyed by the officers comment to my hysterical child. "You sure dont look like you are wanting for much wearing Etneas for shoes." What kind of a moron says that to a child? If she WAS in fact needy I seriously doubt it would be Kool Aid on her list of things to steal. This wasnt about need, it was about opportunity and as far as Im concerned once I arrived on the scene it was my turn to handle it the way I choose. Legally they cannot do anything to her. And if they could I would be the one to pay the fine....so just back off now and let me take over. Of course I didnt say anything to the dick head or to her about his stupidity.....the lesson was the important thing.

I was however angry about more than one thing. I was angry that she stole, angry that his children stood by innocently and didnt get blamed for anything....even to the point of having the officer's DEFEND them, when I knew damn well they were also involved. The look of innocence on their faces disturbed me. It was con-ish, obviously there's a problem there. Later on, when questioned by my sweetie about how I was choosing to handle this situation I blew a gasket....letting the cat out of the bag about his kids' involvement. I guess Im still a little pissed, but thankful also that mine was busted and it will not become a habit for her.

Her biggest concern throughtout the whole ordeal is that I would no longer look at her the same, I would no longer trust her and that I would somehow love her differently. We talked in length about how impossible that would be for me.

That was not the end.

His boys were playing a computer game in my oldest daughters room. On her dresser was $200 she had to use to pay her cell phone bill. She went in to shower, returned and there was only $100 left. Her best friend, who is alos known for stealing money, was there. So at this point you have to wonder....Who the hell is responsible when we seem to be harboring so many thieves???????

I made them all sit down. To be fair we stripped searched all of them. We never found it. We suspect the friend, although she adamantly denied it. Saturday was awful. AWFUL.

Sunday was better. My youngest had a school project. Make a house out of any items that nature provides. (Squid if you are reading this, I am NOT open to suggestions) We spent hours putting together a house made of branches, built on stilts. It turned out amazing....and showed my daughter that nothing has changed between us.