Sneaky!

Tyler did something this afternoon that Rick and I found to be a little bit disturbing. Rick was upstairs and I was resting my huge pregnancy ankles on the couch. Tyler was right behind me playing with his table hockey (AKA rod hockey) set. He plays with it for at least an hour each and every day. A bone of contention between the three of us is how Tyler plays with it. Rick insists that all of the hockey players stay on their rods where they belong. The players are hand painted and Tyler tends to be rough as some players' paint has chipped somewhat. My take on the situation is that Ty is 4 years old and we can't expect him to keep any toy in pristine condition. Ty's perspective is that he should be able to pull some of the players off of their rods and play with them in a more free-style way. However, he still keeps them on the actual game (or ice, whatever you'd call it).

If Rick sees the players off their rods he makes Tyler put them back on the rods. If I see the same thing, I don't do anything. Again, I think since it was Tyler's birthday gift he should be able to play as he wishes as long as he's not destroying them. I know, I should respect Rick's wishes. Bad wifey.

But get this! Tyler dropped one on the floor this afternoon. Not a huge deal. He picked it up and put it back on the game (or so I thought). To be honest, I was tired and didn't really care. A few moments later I heard Tyler go into the pen/pencil drawer. This was also just a few feet behind me. I figured he was grabbing a pencil to draw with. Wrong. About an hour later Rick was putting the game away so he could set the table for dinner while I cooked. He found a hockey player's head on the floor! It must have broken off when Ty dropped it. "Where's the rest of it, Ty?" Rick asked sternly. Ty didn't answer. We looked all around. Then I remembered something. I looked in that pen/pencil drawer and guess what I found....a hockey player's body. Tyler slyly hid it thinking we wouldn't know what happened. But duh, Tyler, you left the head on the floor.

Rick and I were disappointed. How did Tyler learn how to be sneaky like that? We can understand many things such as the way he'll act out before thinking. It's something we're working on. But the fundamental problem with what happened today was that it was a thought out plan, even if it only took him a moment to think it up. We explained that dropping a hockey player on the floor can be an honest mistake but to hide the broken player is very, very naughty. He received a spanking and he lost his privileges to play rod hockey for a week.

Trust me, reader, I realize that a lot worse could have happened. It's not the end of the world. But let me say this, it took me aback to see him being sneaky like that. It just reminds me that children are not born innocent and that certain ingrain personality characteristics need to be undone or unsocialized out of children. My goal is to undo these things for Tyler sooner as opposed to later. I suppose it is a long, long process. After all, I'm quite certain that people of all ages have traits that need to be undone. I certainly do!