Strange Things afoot....

Things my c1 has learned at Boy Scout Camp.

How to be in a police lineup. wait What??!?!

So my c1 calls me on his way home, they pass a cell phone around the car to give us an update on when to pick them up. So, he calls when they are supposed to be arriving, and says that they will be home in two hours. I say, my, you must have gotten a late start. He says, no, it was because of the police lineup.

Imagine my response!

But, mom in background tells him to pass the phone so another child can make the call and that we will be updated when they get home.

So, I had had to take c2 to a girl scout event and had to wait for an update from my hubby.

Apparently, one of the boys in his troop woke up in the middle of the night and thought it a go0d idea to break a window on the troop store, break in, and steal candy and pocket knives and stuff like that.

UMMMMMM Hello!

This is one of those 'WHAT IN GODS NAME WAS HE THINKING'! moments.

Like someone was not going to notice that when he brought his stuff to be loaded in a car, that he had extra bags filled with candy and such?

I feel horrible for the boys parents. Can you just imagine what they must be feeling. Lets just say that I was THRILLED that it wasn't my son! It could have been. not that my son has EVER done anything like that, but in reality, couldn't that be any of our kids. We know that their brains are not fully developed until they are in their mid 20's. They just dont think about the consequences of their actions. If they did, they would have a better response than 'I dont Know' when we ask why they did something stupid.

So, now I am torn between wanting that boy as far away from my son as humanly possible and wanting to give him another chance.

(why is my daughter humming taps behind me at the kitchen table)

I want to be, as I assume we all do, protective of my kids. Keep them in a bubble until they are married! Keep the bad people away from them, keep them from being bad people. But if and when, because we know they will, they do something, what do we do with them. What should their friends do with them? Toss them away? Run from them? hide from them?

I do my best to teach my kids right from wrong, teach them how to be good people, but they will make mistakes. I just hope its not a huge one, (using my mom ruler to measure big mistakes from small ones).

I'm sure most of us did something stupid as a kid. Stole a candy bar, or something else, (not going to say much more for fear of giving my mom a heart attack. The less she knows the better. Lets just say I am lucky to be alive/not in jail) but that is my point. We all survived and most of us were lucky not to get busted or killed. But some kids to get busted. What do we do with them? How do we help guide yet protect at the same time.

Why doesn't life come with a manual???

and for the record....my son was terrified when the police were questioning the boys because he, along with most of them boys, had eaten some of the candy. They didn't know it was stolen!