Summer Vacation Surprises

My daughters have been enjoying their summer vacation to the fullest.  They have been having a blast.  Me, not so much.  Summer vacation is dreadful to have them around the house 24-7.  This is because of my broken stuff (my youngest keeps breaking things by accident) and because really...those 8 hours or so they are in school is a blessed relief with no sibbling fighting.  We go back to school Aug 15th (or so) and I am counting the days.

My oldest informed me today that my youngest brought two lego man masks (wolf masks that come with a costly set) to school and gave them away.  I am just now hearing about this.  These sets cost about $20 a piece and the BIG part of the set is actually the lego men themselves.

We had an issue last year with her bringing toys to school, and I thought we had nipped it in the bud.  Apparently not.  She was constantly being asked to bring her toys to school and GIVE them to certain kids.  I told her it was unacceptable the first time I caught her, and she supposedly stopped.  Turns out, she actually DID bring these masks to school even after being told not to.

Her reasoning is that her friends asked to borrow them, and so she let them borrow them.  This is some serious peer pressure.  They were obviously never returned.  I am furious that she defied my house rules, and has been punished accordingly. She will absolutely no longer bring toys to school.  I obviously didn't check her backpack close enough before school and didn't make absolutely sure she was NOT bringing the toys to school.  In her mind, her friends begged her for them...and being a good friend (who only saw them at school and not outside of school), she let them borrow them.

She even tried to convince me that these two boys Aiden and Johnathan would bring them back for her NEXT year.  I call bullshit on that one.  She didn't bring these the last day of school but sometime in the middle of the school year.  If they were going to return them, they would have done so already.

I am mainly furious at the PARENTS of these kids.  Why are these kids begging my daughter for her toys?  Why are they not being returned?  Yes, these are small items but I know everything that enters my house.  I check backpacks like no one's business.  I have caught both of my daughters trying to smuggle other people's toys into our house, and made them return them promptly.  As in, that day we brought it back to the teacher to be returned.  Backpacks were checked every day right after school, due to homework, and it was easy to catch.

So, I can only assume (what with the massive homework they got daily) that these parents LET their little shits KEEP these toys WILLINGLY.  How about people raise their children not to be selfish, spoiled, entitled brats?  What happened to the rule: if it doesn't belong to you, return it?  Essentially what these kids (and parents) did was STEAL toys.

My daughter is partially to blame, but I am placing a good 80% of the blame on the other kids and their shitty parents.  These kids shouldn't have been begging for her toys at school, to the extent that she broke MY house rules and brought them in.  These kids and their parents should have RETURNED the items.

The sad thing is that my daughter had to learn a hard lesson today.  We don't lend things out to other kids.  Ever.  She knows now what will happen.  She is mainly concerned she will never see the toys again, and I don't blame her for being upset about that.  I will check her backpack everyday before school, again, just to make sure it doesn't happen again.  That is MY job as a parent, and I failed once.  I will never fail again.

Edit:  I did some googling and according to MOST parents, they will keep the toys for their kids because it was a "fair trade".  Yet, my daughter got nothing in return.  You cannot excuse stealing.  These parents FAILED at parenting their children massively.  They taught them if they beg enough for something, they will get it.  It's not like these kids are POOR and NEED these toys.  They just wanted to be selfish brats and TAKE something that seemed cool and didn't belong to them.

My oldest would never do this.  She knows better.  At least my youngest has learned her lesson.  It won't happen again from OUR family.  But, I am sure OTHER families will fall into this black hole that is known as toy borrowing/trading.