Kleptomaniac

I am about to confess something that will make you think less of me. My son, 11 months old, is already a kleptomaniac.

I discovered this a couple of days ago when we went to Kroger. Adam was at an engineering meeting and the kids and I went to get some broccoli and a few bake mixes. Claire's birthday was yesterday and I wanted to bake her the muffins and cookies of her choosing and broccoli to balance it all out.

It was a fairly short trip to the grocery store. It was also fairly low maintenance. No trips to the bathroom, no time-outs in the grocery cart, not much begging for unnecessary items.

I put all my groceries on the register, keeping one eye on Claire because she kept grabbing candy bars and offering them to other people in line. She didn't quite understand why the lady behind us didn't want to eat the Hershey bar she was trying to give her.

So one eye on Claire, one eye on the register, pen in hand writing a check. We checked out, I sighed with relief and we started walking out. Then I saw it.

Paul was hugging a package of cookie mix. I hadn't paid for it.

And this is where my crisis of conscience comes in. I had a debate in my head. Do I go back to the register, apologize and pay for the $2 mix? Do I use this as a lesson on honesty? Or do I pretend I didn't notice and keep on walking out the door with unpaid merchandise?

Claire is now three, old enough to be learning lessons like this. She could have benefitted from her mother's act of honesty. Instead, her mother was dishonest and kept on walking. I could list a thousand excuses for why I didn't go back and pay for the cookies, but the real reason is that I didn't want to.

And as a kick in the seat of my pants, I swear to you I have never seen a rent-a-cop at Kroger, but there was one right outside the door when we left. At first I was scared we were going to be arrested, but then I realized I still could go back and pay for the cookies. I didn't.

Right and wrong is often not black and white. My life has a lot of gray in it. I believe it's important to model good choices for my children, especially when it would have been so easy to go back and pay. Hopefully my kids will pick up on all my good deeds and not remember this one. Or they could be headed toward a life of crime, which could have been avoided for $2 plus tax.