Learning from our mistakes

We almost didn't make it to the parade Friday night.

When Brian picked the girls up he was notified about an incident that happened at Jackie's today.

Apparently the girls pulled down Cora's pants while they were at the park.

That statement followed up with the usual- Cora's parents are upset, they wanna know what we are going to do about it, etc- but then Jackie also said that she didn't see it, nobody else saw it, Bruce (Cora's brother who is 9) didn't see it.  We only knew it happened because when Cora's dad got there she started to cry and when asked why she told him what happened.

Great.

When they got home we asked them to tell us what happened.  They both started acting a little nervous so it was obvious that something happened.  We explained to Hannah that it is more important to us that she tells us the truth and that she is going to get punished either way but we need to know what happened.  She tells us the truth and her punishment will reflect that- we find out something else or she lies or doesn't tell and her punishment will be bigger.

She started to spill.  Something along the lines of "They were all standing by the slide and Cora told Hailey "If I don't go down the slide you can pull my pants down" so then Hailey did and then she did it again and again and again."  Hailey started to hide her face so it seemed as though the story was probably pretty close.  

I of course wasn't there but these are 3 and 5 year olds trying to reason with each other about a 'bet' and I am sure the only thing Hailey heard was pull down pants and then after she did it the first time there was probably a laugh (at least from Hannah) so then she probably did it a few more times to get that same laugh.

Appropriate behavior? NEVER

Malicious and Bully behavior?  Nah- I can't see it

We let the girls know that we were NOT happy about this and then talked about punishment and what would happen if we EVER heard that something like this happened again.

Before they went to Jackie's this morning they sat at the table to make Cora a card to say they were sorry.  Hannah drew pictures of the girls and wrote I'm sorry.

Hailey wrote this:

When I asked her what it said she told me this:  "Cora, I am sorry that you ask people to pull down your pants."

I couldn't help but chuckle just because that is Hailey- stubborn and in NO way apologizing for something.  She isn't denying she did it, just not taking accountability for it.  

She was not happy that I made her sit back down and this time asked her to just draw a picture.

Everything is fine- the girls got to daycare and Cora was there- I heard Hannah give her the card and ask her "Do you forgive me?" and Cora said "yes".