An Idaho Vandal

Teagan's in a destructive phase. It makes me regret laughing so hard at Brandon's cousin who had a little boy with a taste for revenge. His sister did something that he didn't like, and in retaliation, he sat quietly in the corner, snapping each crayon individually. Funny, right? Funny until your daughter peels the paper off a board book...that belongs to the library!

Two years. That's how long we checked out books at the library in Las Vegas without an incident. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the sad remains of a book we'd borrowed against my will. The irony of her destroying the "Tips for Parents and Caregivers" page is not lost on me, but I don't find it funny quite yet. It was an inane book about handwashing and germs that didn't even rhyme or tells us anything we didn't know. It was meant for children much younger than her, but she insisted we check it out. I try not to say "No" at the library much, since I have to say it so much at the store. And in the car. And at the park. And in the house. 

'Here's an opportunity for a lesson in doing the right thing' thought I, and sat the vandal down. We had a discussion about respect and consequences and I explained that we would be going to the library to apologize and see what we needed to do to make it right. 

I called the library to ask how they handled things like this, to make sure that I could prepare her for what was going to happen and learn a valuable lesson in respecting things - particularly things that don't belong to us. They told me they wouldn't yell at her but would assess the damage and see what we needed to do - monetary, mending, what have you. So I explained that to Teagan and off we marched to the library, only to find out that the person responsible for assessing damage was out of town and would just charge my account once she'd looked at the books. So while I had Teagan apologize, the lesson didn't really compute because we couldn't do anything right then to fix the problem.

So, they charge my library account $8 to replace the other book that had one tear in one page. I don't understand the logic, but I hope that replacing an $8 library book now might deter her from destroying much more valuable property later. At least that's what I'm praying for tonight.