Gleek plunked her purchase down on the counter and began carefully counting out $4.23. There were pennies involved and so this took a few minutes. Fortunately there was no line behind us and the checker was tolerant. More than tolerant, she was grandmotherly and rather charmed by the scene of a petite seven year old girl carefully counting out change. Money was handed over, then the cashier lifted the item to bag it. Her eye brows lifted as well. Gleek was carefully spending her own money on a wall patch. The cashier put two and two together.
“Doing a repair?” She asked.
“Yup.” Answered Gleek cheerfully. “I kicked a hole in the wall.”
The cashier smiled down at Gleek. “But you’re too little and cute to kick a hole in the wall.”
Gleek smiled back. “I’m cute, but I’m feisty when I’m mad.”
As Gleek skipped out of the store, I pondered whether being smiled and teased by a cashier constituted a reward for the behavior of making holes in walls. Fortunately I think that it is a reward for Gleek spending her own money to repair the damage done. She was sufficiently aghast and repentant earlier.
“I didn’t know walls were so weak mom!” she told me with wide teary eyes. “I’ll never break a wall again!”
I believe her. Gleek is very good at Not Doing That Again. We’re still working on the Not Doing That In The First Place. We’re also working on listening to Mom when she warns you not to pound the wall with your feet no matter how mad you are.
Gleek applied the patch herself. She was fascinated by the process and very pleased with the result. So now we have a patch on the wall going up the stairs. It is obviously a patch, but that is better than being obviously a hole in the wall. And I’m not really one to complain. The patch on Gleek’s hole is smaller and less noticeable than the patch in the front room where I kicked a hole in the wall 8 years ago. Gleek was quite happy to learn that Mom has also been guilty of overestimating the strength of plasterboard walls. And Gleek will now have to save up money again so she can take it to school and buy that pen she wanted. Forgetting to take the money to school was the cause of the tantrum in the first place, which makes it especially appropriate that the money had to be used to repair damage instead.
When Howard came home, Gleek showed him the patched spot. She was extremely pleased with her work. It was a sharp contrast to the red-eyed tearful girl who’d called her Daddy earlier, terrified that he would be mad at her. But she spoke bravely through her tears to tell him what she had done and what she planned to do to make it right. She was so glad to be able to demonstrate that she’d followed through on her commitment.
So the hole is mended and we take a deep breath, ready to move on to whatever comes next.
Good for her! And good for Mom and Dad too.
I think I was in my late teens when I kicked a hole in the wall and freaked out about what my parents were going to do to me when they got home…
This is such a sweet story. I’m guessing Gleek will remember this experience for the rest of her life.
What a great learning experience. Convenient that it could be resolved all in one day, too.
Like Anne of Green Gables said, she’s got to run out of mistakes sometime. 🙂
Walls seem so sturdy that it is something of a shock the first time you make a hole in one.
I hope so. It is part of Not Doing That Again. 🙂
The trip to the store wasn’t entirely convenient, but I deemed it important to have the problem resolved quickly.
I fully intend to introduce Gleek to Anne just as soon as Gleek’s reading level gets high enough. I think they will be kindred spirits.
Just wait. When I was fifteen or so, I got mad at Dad, and so put my hand through the wall. Drywall, stud, and punched a slab of the siding right off. Boy, did that shock both of us. 🙂
You punched through a wall stud??? o-O
So, where do I send the bribes to keep on your good side?? 🙂
I’ve gotten much better at anger management since then.
Also…my hobbies no longer include breaking boards with various body parts half an hour a day…
Once again, a masterful bit of parenting, well done, you, and well done Gleek. OK, not making a hole in the wall would’ve been better, but I bet this way the lesson will be learned. We often have to learn things the hard way, even when Mom tells us “you don’t want to do that”.
Many years ago I slammed out of the house in a temper over something. On the path outside was a small firewood log. This I kicked, and it sailed across the path and striaght through the one glass pane in the greenhouse, causing me to have to get and fit a replacement pane. With hindsight, not kicking the log would have been a better approach…
Might repeat what’s been said
First thing – do you know that there’s something really great about this post (writing wise)? It felt like one of the short stories that appear on your website. Not that you don’t usually write well, but this felt more like a story than you just telling us stuff (if that last sentence makes sense).
Second – great parenting story.
Third – do you think that she’d like doing something creative with her hands? Just a thought that went through my mind, since you mentioned she like patching the hole. I apologize if it is unsolicited or pushy advice.
I don’t know how much patience and aptitude for this she has, but various forms of sculpting came to mind. Working with clay, for example, and I know someone who sculpted in some kind of artificial soft stone that is used in construction. These are the easy kind of sculpting, and you use relatively blunt instruments (which are important with a 7 year old).
Uri David
Re: Might repeat what’s been said
“First thing – do you know that there’s something really great about this post (writing wise)? It felt like one of the short stories that appear on your website. Not that you don’t usually write well, but this felt more like a story than you just telling us stuff (if that last sentence makes sense).”
You are right. Re-reading the post, I think part of it has to do with how Sandra began her tale in the middle of the “plotline,” and then backtracked to explain what had happened, and part of it is the particular details chosen to describe the scene at the cash register — the determined child counting out pennies and the indulgent cashier. The latter half of the post is less like a short story because it is less “show” and more “tell.”
Re: Might repeat what’s been said
Gleek does enjoy working with clay and play dough. I should probably get those out more often.
It is a bit of a shock when you make a hole in one.
Imagine my brother’s surprise when he put my sister through one…