I heard a tinkling crash in the front hallway followed by the words, “Oh, I’m the worst kid in the world.”

I waited in the wings to hear what would happen next. Would the two older girls work together to sweep the broken pieces under the bench or would someone come forward and admit they had broken something they shouldn’t have been playing with in the first place.

Taking ownership is something I’m trying to instil in my girls. Mostly because a couple of months ago, I found two partially eaten bananas in the garbage and asked the girls if they had eaten their bananas at breakfast and they said yes. Hmmm. How did these two totally unrelated bananas with similar skin tone and bruising as the two they were served end up in the garbage? Twin bunches?

Hanna came to me holding the broken ornament and a small piece of red glass. The tip of her finger had a drop of blood on it from picking up the glass in an effort to fully disclose what she had done. This is good. Not the broken ornament or the blood (even typing that word makes me feel woozy) but the fact she was disappointed in herself for doing something she knew she wasn’t supposed to be doing….removing glass ornaments from the tree and wearing them as earrings in front of the mirror.

She cried and apologized.

It was hard to get mad at the worst kid in the world for something we’ve all been guilty of. Her punishment will be to make a replacement ornament from our craft supplies and me having to hang the paper cut-out, shaped like a half-eaten banana with glitter glue remnants all over the living room floor will be mine.