Little Life Lessons

I was at Target. It had been a long day with S. He was being pretty good, all things considered. Shopping was not one of his strong suits. It still isn't as far as I can tell. We got to the checkout and I started plopping all the junk on the counter. This was always a big deal as S always had to ride in the back with his backpack and unload all his stuff to play with while I was shopping. We get all the stuff scanned, bagged and loaded back into the cart. We walked (I walk, he rides) over towards the door. I started picking all his "treasures" that must be carried with him everywhere he went. And trust me, that was no small task. The kid had more treasures than anyone I have ever known.

I got both of our coats on and off we went. We get to my car. (Man, I miss that car. That would be the one I wrecked twice, and boy was it my favorite car ever!) I loaded our bags into the trunk. I loaded S's backpack. I went to lift him out of the cart and realized that I had a small package laying in the cart still. It was the mascara that I had picked up. I knew immediately that I had not paid for it.

I pushed the cart right back into the store and went to the customer service desk. I took out the mascara and told the girl at the desk that I needed to pay for it. I found it in the bottom of the cart when I was unloading and now needed to pay. She stared at me. I said again that I needed to pay for the mascara. She actually asked me if I was for real. I had no idea what she meant. I said excuse me? She then proceeded to tell me that in the whole time she worked there, she had never heard of anyone coming back to pay for something that made it out of the store. I asked her again to please ring it up. She told me to wait just a minute. She picked up the phone and called someone. This faceless person showed up a moment later. It was a manager. She got the "story" from the girl behind the desk. She looked at me and said she didn't understand why I would bring it back in. I told them to just ring the mascara up so I could get on my way home. She rang it up and told me she was sorry for their reaction, but that this was unheard of. No one comes back in to pay for something once they are out.

My response to these two gals? I looked at them, then looked at my son, who was taking in everything that was being said. I then told them that I had to bring it back to pay. What kind of example would I be if I taught my son at four years old that it was okay to steal as long as no one catches you? What kind of person would I be in his eyes if he thought I was not trustworthy? What in the world could I have done differently that would not shape my son's view of life into something a little less positive and right? Nothing. I had to show him the proper way to live and be. The proper way to behave. I certainly was not going to teach my four year old that it's okay to steal. They were completely flabbergasted by that. They had never heard of anyone saying something like that.

I look back at this situation and have several thoughts. The first being, what kind of employees do these stores hire if they expect people to steal and are shocked when they don't. The whole planet is not a bunch of thieves.

The second being that I hope I made a good impression on all involved in the deal. I hope that my son learned a lesson that stealing is not okay. And I really, really hope that those two gals could look at people a little differently, and maybe not so cynically. Look at people and see that there might be some good in there.