Sneaky, Sneaky....

There was a little bit of craziness at Casa Cohen this morning, something I don't think I'm prepared for.  It actually started this past weekend when B put a tank top on under her t-shirt, thinking she was hiding it from us.  Then again, yesterday afternoon when I volunteered in B's classroom, I noticed that she was wearing a shirt that I had not seen when she left the house.  I tucked the information away, not realizing that I would need it later.

This morning, she came into our room to say good morning, wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a t-shirt underneath.  Thinking something was up, I checked under the t-shirt and found the very same tank top she had worn yesterday.  After you get past the "ewwww" and "yuck!" factors, it gets better.  I then noticed that she was wearing the same jeans she had worn yesterday .... and several times over the weekend. 

Things went downhill from there, with parental demands that she change her clothes and tears (hers) and yelling (everyone.)  The basics that we got out of her, was that she "promised" her friend that she would wear that particular pink tank top to school again today.  I'm not sure why, but there you have it.  I'm sure she knew we would not want her to wear the same shirt twice (she plays hard at school and gets dirty!), and so she tried to sneak it.

I'm not ready for a sneaky child.  I thought that I might have to deal with this at some point, a child who hides clothes in a bag or keeps make-up in a locker because it is forbidden at home, but I did not think I would have to deal with it at age 7.  Part of me wants to shake her, to make her understand that this behavior is not acceptable.  Part of me is scared stiff of what she will hide in the years to come, if she is already hiding clothing under layers.  Where do children get these ideas?

Unfortunately, this discovery comes at a price to Mom and Dad.  Where we thought we could give her a little more freedom, to get herself dressed in the mornings, we now have to go back to the old ways of setting out clothes on Sunday for the whole week.  We now have to police everything that goes out the door, checking under layers and under coats to make sure that nothing is being snuck past us.  I would like to say that we will be able to trust her again, but it will be a long time in coming.  Maybe we gave her too much responsibility.  Once again, this parenting thing does not come with an instruction book, so we get to figure things out at as we go.

(I won't even get into the part where she was more upset about promising the friend that she would wear the shirt then she was about getting in trouble or about Mommy and Daddy being upset.  That's a whole different Oprah!)

Until our next adventure...