Tuesday, July 14, 2009

End of the innocence

Sarah has never been a big fruit eater and I can't blame her because I'm not a fan of most fruits either. I try to choose fruits that I know she'll eat...bananas, half-cut grapes, apple slices, canned peaches, etc. to serve with lunch. Today I split a banana between the two girls and of course, Charlotte ate hers straight away. That girl would subsist on fruits alone if permitted!! Sarah ate her sandwich and yogurt and as usual, left her fruit for last.

Tonight is the annual pig roast event at our church. This means, in addition to waiting in long lines for food, eating more than an average dessert serving. After Charlotte was finished with her entire lunch and had cleared her plate, Sarah was still sitting at the table whining about having so many banana slices to eat. By this time, she'd been sitting there long enough for them to start oxidizing so they were turning brown, making them even less appealing to her sensitive palate.

I gave her a final 10-minute warning and if she hadn't finished her bananas (a whopping 8 tiny slices), she would get no dessert at church tonight. If there's one thing that can motivate her, it's the opportunity for dessert!! At the end of the 10 minutes, she had chosen the acceptable bananas and consumed those few, leaving 4 on the plate. I told her that for her effort, she could choose one thing off of the dessert table tonight but no more. (We usually allow them to choose a few things from the overwhelming sampling of desserts.) She was not pleased with that and told me that she was going to finish the other bananas.

I had my back turned toward the kitchen when I heard the cabinet under the sink close. Inside that cabinet resides the, you guessed, garbage can. She was proudly clearing her plate to the counter and I said, "Where are your bananas?" and she replied with a near-grin, "I ate them." But I could tell by the immediate change in countenance that she knew she was about to get busted. I walked over to the cabinet and opened it. Sure enough, there on top of the banana peel lay 4 little slices of banana. She had lied. Blatantly lied. Intentionally lied. My heart just broke because she seemed so remorseful and I sent her to her room. I thought that she must be really feeling bad for lying to me as she walked away sobbing so sadly.

But then she turned around and asked through her tears, "But how many desserts will I get?"

Remorse? Maybe not.

I'm sad that she resorted to lying. I don't like punishing her for something that could have been so easily avoided. I don't like that we're going to have a rough time at the pig roast tonight because she's going to throw a huge fit about the desserts. And I don't like that her innocence is waning. Ugh.

1 comment:

  1. Don't cha' just hate it when they grow up?

    Stand your ground.

    ReplyDelete