A Moved Man

This post comes with no pictures & some sorrow, but a lesson learned. I will say that my reason for posting this is to remember, however, I do ask that you say nothing of this to Tatum.

With that said, Tatum had to move her man to yellow for the first time. She has gone all year without having to move her guy & has been very proud of that fact. In fact, if someone has to move their guy, she lets me know every time. That's how serious she views this. When you leave for the day with your man on green you get a sticker, on yellow you get no sticker, on red & you have to talk with Mr. Haggard & call your parents. Her offense wasn't huge, but it was breaking the rules & for that she had to deal with her consequences. You would have thought that it was the end of the world. She came out of class & when I asked if she got her sticker (because in my mind why wouldn't she) the tears began to fall. At that moment, I thought I was going to cry, too. She was embarrassed but also knew that she had disappointed me, daddy, & her teacher. This alone, I thought was punishment, but I couldn't let her go that easily. She had to have a talk with her daddy & tell him that she didn't get her sticker & why. I let Toby know what was coming, but was leaving it up to Tatum to tell him on her own.

Well, she did it. We've been trying to teach her that it's better to be honest about things, than to hide them. You have to face the consequences, but when you're honest it generally goes better for you.

So here Toby & I stand... parenting. Yes, we've been parenting for 5 years, however, it's starting to move into the next chapters, the ones with lessons to be learned for both the parents & the child. Tatum learned one & so did I. And believe me, I don't think we'll be talking about moving our man again!

just a reminder, please don't mention anything about this to Tatum. We told her that this was the end of talking about it, that tomorrow is a new day & everyone will be on green.