I have been in a contemplative mood of late, reflecting on the lessons I want to teach my kids. You know, lessons like, "Do to others what you would have them do to you" and "Stand up for what's right" and "Keep on keeping on" and "R-E-S-P-E-C-T." I think those are all very important. But yesterday I discovered a life lesson that probably needs to be put on the fast track, and that lesson is "Forgery is illegal."
Darcy made what I thought was an innocent comment this past weekend. As I was signing her H2O planner for school for the following day, she mentioned that she could sign my name almost as well as I can. Don't ask me why no red flags went up at that statement, but I went on about my business and thought nothing of it.
Then yesterday, as I was changing the sheets on the girls' beds, I was cleaning papers off of Darcy's bunk and I discovered a reading list where the student tracks how many books they've read for the month of February. The list had been dutifully filled out with title, author, number of pages and date read. And there at the bottom was my signature. But wait--that's not MY signature. What's this???
Fortunately, since the form was for this month that meant the teacher had not yet seen it, because there is NO doubt Darcy had exaggerated her talent for signing my name. I mean, hello?! It looked nothing like my signature! In a total departure from my normal modus operandi, I did not get overly excited or concerned because I truly did not believe Darcy was trying to be deceptive. I merely folded up the paper and resolved to talk to her about it when I picked her up from school.
And I am pleased to report that Darcy's reaction was unmistakable and she had ABSOLUTELY no intention of trying to pass off her signature as my own. She was just playing. Still, I seized the opportunity to talk to her about forgery; after all, this is the same child who talked her sister into prank-calling the Emergency Response Team not too awfully long ago and if left unchecked, could a career in crime be far behind? I impressed upon her the fact that forgery is a felony that carries a prison term, and if the size of her eyes was any indication, I don't think she'll be polishing her duplicating skills from this point forward.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
sooooo...you put them in school, and they call 911 and forge your name??!!! WHAT is school doing to the poor innocent Todd children!!!!!
good one, po! but we've always heard stories about "preachers' kids"! i think we'd be more concerned if they weren't getting into the normal trouble that kids get into! that would only be a sign they were saving it up for later years... and that could be scary!! ~T
Po and T, I know we've already exhausted the conversation about my heading-for-juvie kids, but in case the rest of the world reads the comments, Darcy really is a GREAT kid! No trouble at all! Law-abiding, even! Wears her retainer, doesn't talk with her mouth full, says "Yes ma'am/yes sir" (most of the time) . . . she's really not a bad seed!
Of course she is!!! She still remains in my top 4 favorite Todd children!!! You know your stories *are* so funny because your kids really are that good!! And...it's hard to even imagine them thinking about, much less DOING the things you write about!!!
Post a Comment