Life Lessons

I'm a mean Mom. I say it all the time, and I make no apologies for it. Today I had a mean Mom moment. The kids and I were in SuperStore getting the last of our groceries. We were in the bulk section getting chocolate chips, and as I started walking away I saw Cyndel shove something in her mouth and then look guiltily at me. I asked her what she had eaten and she meekly pointed to the raisin bin. My mini lecture went something like this:
"You ate raisins? You stole them, and then ate them? That makes you a thief. I'm very dissapointed that you stole them."
When I told her she was a thief, she started to cry. I told her I wasn't mad at her, but that she had committed a sin, and that like all sins, she would need to repent for it. I asked her if she knew what that meant, and then explained that repenting meant being sorry for what she had done, saying sorry to the people she had hurt, promising never to do it again, and making ammends for her sin; which in this case meant paying for the eaten raisins. We got to the checkout and I gave her 4 pennies and told her she would have to tell the cashier what she had done, and pay for her raisins. We walked around to stand beside the cashier (a late 20 something woman) and I whispered for her to just play along.
"go ahead and tell her what you did" I prompted Cyndel. My poor little girl just stood their with eyes brimming with tears.
"What did you eat?" I encouraged.
"I ate raisins" came the whispered reply.
At that, the cashier picked up on what was happening, "Oh, did you take raisins with out asking? Did you know that is called stealing?".
Nodding her head silently, she held out her hand. "I'm sorry, here's some monies to pay for them."

The cashier took the money for the raisins, and reminded Cyndel again that she must never take anything from a store without first paying for it. She then slid the pennies back to me as I walked away and smiled at me. I thanked her for being so understanding and so helpful. Standing on the otherside of the conveyor belt and watching raptly was a young, very pregnant, woman. She smiled at me, and told me she was taking note.

After all was said and done I hugged my poor, sweet Cyndel and told her I was proud of her. I have no doubt in my mind that she will never steal again!!

I'm sure I could have let it go, it was just a couple of raisins, but what a great teaching moment. Would you have done it differently?