A Thing For Slippers

I got a call this morning from Anna's school. An "older" boy in her class, a kindergartener, had taken one of Anna's slippers home with him several weeks ago. He'd also taken another little girl's slipper. His mom apparently found them in his backpack over the weekend and made him write apology letters.

I was called because the boy's mom really wanted the other parents to help participate in the correcting of his behavior.

Let me back up a bit. Students wear slippers inside school to help with the noise factor and also the dirt factor, I'm sure. And, no, the ones shown in this photo aren't Anna's school footwear. These are Anna's and Alexander's slippers worn around the house. For school, she wears simple pink ballet-style slippers.

Her school slipper came up missing several weeks ago, actually. She and her teachers were looking for it the day we were there to celebrate her half birthday. I hadn't bought her a new pair right away because I figured the other one would be found. In the meantime, she's been getting by in her sock feet. Wouldn't you know it, however, I'd finally purchased her a pair of new slippers over the weekend (and I can't return them because her name is written on the bottoms)!

So when I picked up Anna, the teacher walked the little boy over to me and he read me his apology letter, "Der Ana, I'm sory sinn yor sliprs I wot soel yor sliprs." Translation: "I'm sorry for stealing your slippers. I won't steal your slippers." You can tell he wrote it all out himself by sounding out the words, as opposed to his mom doing it for him. It was written on the big lined paper that kids use when they're first learning to write. He is also supposed to reimburse us for the new ones with his saved up money in the piggy bank. I told him I found the new pair for $5, which wasn't too far off the mark anyway, and he said: "Then I will pay you $5." I was supposed to put on a disappointed sort of face and thank him for his apology and make sure he understood it was a poor choice on his part. I felt uncomfortable about being a meanie about it so I put forth my best effort and made sure I shook his hand at the end. His mom really wanted to follow through with this to such an extent because, apparently, he's been taking a lot of his older sister's things and getting her into trouble (because her parents think she's being irresponsible for losing stuff).