Boys, Moms & Graffiti– A Story of Love

Right after our laughing fit about the Juvi Christmas Jammies, my cousin went on to tell me why this comment from Pete was more funny than we thought. She started telling us about him “tagging” the shed by the middle school while his dad was coaching his brother at football practice. We were cracking up listening to the story and I told her that she really needed to document this one. So the other day she did. It turned out to be much more tender than funny as I read through it. I asked her for permission to share it on my blog, because this is really what being a “good parent” is all about– taking the bad times with the good and knowing how to teach your children right from wrong, even when it is ripping you up inside.

I know. I’ve walked through the valley of Hell with a child of my own. But these are the moments that we truly teach our children how to step up and take responsibility for their life, to not blame things on others, and to just do the right thing even though it is hard.

I know you’ll love this story. Here’s my cousin’s post:

Not Our Finest Moment

Sometimes I get a tired of looking at blog’s and seeing all the perfect things that are going on in other people’s lives, perfect trips, perfect parties, perfect Halloween costumes, perfect Christmas, perfect perfect, perfect…. Usually that is how my blog looks, I don’t really want to remember the poop all over my floor from a sick child, or the not so perfect report card, or that my child isn’t the best at sharing. I could go on and on here… I like the rest of the blog-world sugar coat our lives. It could appear that our family runs very smooth, we do have a few deaths once in a while but other than that, we go from one party to the next sporting event all singing and laughing as we go. Ha! 😉 Well I think it’s time to get real, our lives are NOT like that, we have our struggles along with all the fun stuff. This day back in September was not our finest moment!Pete will kill me if he knew I put this on here, so if by chance you see him, DO NOT bring this up! He feels super bad about the whole deal but for the sake of our family history it’s gotta be here. So if you are reading this, I trust you not to tell him. :)One morning in September while I was driving the boys to school Pete asked me “Mom what happens if you spray paint on a building?

I said “Well that is Graffiti and you could go to Juvenile Detention or Jail?”

He looks at me with big eyes and says “Really??”

I say “Yes, that is defacing someones property and it is a crime? Why are you asking me this?”

“Well… last night while I was at L’s practice, I found a can of spray paint and put a little bit on the shed behind the Middle School?” He replies.

Thinking it was just a line or a dot or something, I said “Well you have to go to school right now, and I am sure it isn’t a lot, we will have to go over after school and see it.”

Pete got out of the car reluctantly and walked to class. After school we drove down to the middle school. On the way Pete asked “Mom if I go to “Juvi” (he calls Juvenile Detention, “Juvi.” His Grandma works at the court and he has picked up on few things! ;)) will you bail me out?”

I told him “In this family we will never bail you out of your problem, you have to pay the consequence to your action.”

He looked at me and said with a quiver “Will you come visit me everyday??”I was dying, he was really nervous, and I wasn’t. I didn’t think he would really draw all over a building with spray paint. I was expecting a little dot, or something we could scrub off rather quickly. When we pulled up this is what I saw….

I about lost it. This wasn’t a little line or just a little bit of spray paint. This was a work of art!! An SC with the Warrior Head and then the word Warriors was started, but then I am sure he got distracted. We had to go into the school and let the Vice Principal know, this part was really hard. Pete was crying so hard, and because he was I started tearing up too. We talked to him for awhile, he let Pete know that the cops at the school had already seen it, and talked about it. He told him if he was older and knew what he was doing he could be in a lot of trouble. At this point Pete was sobbing. I felt so bad for him. We told the VP Pete would clean it up, but he said the custodian had a chemical that would take it off and not to worry. Pete left there feeling relieved, he thought a week of being grounded was a lot better than spending a few nights in Juvenile Detention. It turned out to be a good learning experience for all of us. He now knows if he finds spray paint, let me know and I’ll get him some paper or something to paint on, he won’t be using a building as his canvas anytime soon!

I’m not sure I read the fine print when I decided to become a Mother, I thought it was all about changing their clothes and going to the park. Being a parent is HARD, I learned that this day. I also learned that I can’t bail my kids out of their problems, but I will be right by their side walking through the fire with them. I love my kids so much and hope I can teach them right from wrong even if that mean learning a few things the hard way.

Not Our Finest Moment

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