On a Sunday where a lot of people are celebrating St. Patrick's Day, drinking green beer or watching championship Sunday, awaiting Selection Sunday we try to figure out who threw away their clementine. At our house, we don't throw away our fruit and/or vegetables... it's a rule. As their Mom, I know which veggies /fruits are not their favorite (in which they don't get much on their plate) and I know which they love and are then expected to eat what they are given. In this case, it was one clementine with their lunch.
(The Clementine itself)
So cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, I realize that one of the kids threw away their entire clementine. So I very nicely ask all three kids, "Who didn't eat their fruit?" And all three kids had the same answer, "I ate all of mine." So I asked three more times and when their answers didn't change they were all sent to sit on the "dog couch" (only cause it is smallest) until one of them wanted to admit to throwing it away. After 20 minutes or so and still no confession, I ask "This is your last time to tell mom you threw away your orange before I get really mad now for lying about it. I wasn't even that mad about the orange and I was just going to make you eat it. But now, you are in trouble for lying about it. So you will sit there all day until one of you tells me." Keep in mind, I know my kids and I had a good idea after asking them the first time which one did it but that's not the point here. It's a good lesson for all. Twenty more minutes go by with no one confessing, so I had them go into the office (aka interrogation room) and talk to Jacques. He very calmly asked each kid the same two questions: "Did you eat all your orange?" and "Did you throw away your orange?" Each kid, yet again, said the same thing, "yep I ate ALL my orange" and "NO I did NOT throw it away." So back to the couch they go, by this time Wylie has crawled onto the end table because he is just mad that one of the girls has not admitted it yet... oh and that way he can also partially see the t.v and the basketball game that's on.
(Tori above in "interrogation room," while other two wait their turns)
One hour later, yep they sat there for one hour, doing nothing just sitting there. We talked about how terrible it was to not admit to doing something wrong, let someone else get in trouble for what they did, not taking responsibility etc and how even if they might get in trouble, telling the truth is always the best way. So we asked Tori to look Kasey in the eyes and repeat after us and we asked Kasey to do the same. As soon as Tori had to repeat, "Kasey I ate my orange. I would never lie to get you into trouble because that is not what sisters do," she started bawling... Kasey could repeat it all pretty sharply cause she is pissed that she was getting into trouble for something she didn't do. So I ask Tori, "Do you want to come with mom and talk to me?" She says "no, I ate all my orange." Finally, after nearly 2 1/2 hours (in total) I say, "I am giving which ever one of you who did this 3 minutes to fess up I am going to freak out, yell at both of you and send you both to your rooms until dinner." Tori is crying this whole time when I announce there is only 30 seconds left, she stares at me with those big blue eyes and says "I want to talk to you." So off we go.... She admits through lots of tears that she did it. She had to go apologize to Kasey first and then up to spend the rest of the afternoon in her room for lying.
Kasey also learned a valuable lesson because I got to explain to her that it would have been easier to believe her if she hadn't lied to me about things before. She said, "that's a horrible feeling for you not to believe me when I love oranges, they are the first thing I eat if you pack them in my lunch."
Who would have thought that this tiny little clementine would cause a 2 1/2 hour stand off, lots of tears, some interrogating, a confession and one tough (but ever so important) lesson.
~It's My Life
