Aug 28 2008
Monkey see monkey do
The neighbor children were outside, and Nathan and Lucie asked to go play. Since our four neighbor children are the nicest, most well behaved I have ever met, I knew there was nothing to worry about. The bigger kids watch over the younger ones. So I gave Nathan and Lucie permission to go outside, and to mind the big boys.
I went upstairs to my room, which overlooks the neighbor's and our driveways. While I worked on the computer, I kept the window open. This way I could keep an ear out for trouble and look down to see what the children were up to or to answer questions like, "Can we have a popsicle?" or "Mom, can you get the ball from across the street?"
Everything was fine until Nathan yelled out, "Mooooooom! Lucie's peeing on the front lawn." I looked out the window and saw Lucie on the lawn half naked with her shorts and pull-up off. Indeed, she was standing there peeing on my husband's finely manicured lawn. My first thought was, oh great, my daughter is going feral. Yippee, maybe I can drop her off at the zoo to be raised. Then I rushed downstairs and asked her why she was doing that. Lucie replied, "Well Nathan peed on the lawn!" Oh boy, now I had two feral kids on my hands.
I asked Nathan if that was true and he denied it. Realizing that he wouldn't admit to anything in front of the neighbor boys, I quickly herded both of my discipline problems inside.
As I got Lucie dressed, I told her we do not pee on the front lawn because 1) it's yucky, 2) we pee in the potty, 3) peeing outside is only o.k. when we go hiking or camping, and 4) daddy would be mad if you killed his lawn. Then I asked Nathan again if he peed on the lawn first. He denied it repeatedly.
Later that day, I revisited the "we use the potty not the front lawn" issue with Lucie. And again, she told me she used the front lawn because Nathan did. Knowing that a three-year-old wasn't likely to make up something like this on her own, I grilled Nathan again. "Oh yeah. I forgot. I did pee on the front lawn," he finally admitted. I sent him to his room and waited for his father to come home to discuss the incident and help me decide appropriate punishment.
Why is it that kids do the most embarrassing things on the front lawn right in front of the entire neighborhood? Now where did I put the number for the Denver Zoo?
