Sneaking

What an interesting morning this morning.  As I woke up I realized I could not move wedged firmly in between Mylee and Darryl in my bed; knowing I was fully capable of movement I shimmied my way down the bed to turn off the beeping and utterly annoying alarm clock.   Kiya was still snuggled into bed so I gently woke her up and went to brush my teeth.  Next thing I know Kiya is on the floor in her pajamas organizing her pip squeak Crayola markers.  So I tell her to get dressed and get upstairs to eat and brush her own teeth.  Five minutes later I had to say the exact same thing, except I clued in that she was fully intending on taking said markers to school today. 

Now it is the last day before March Break and though I love my child she tends to forget things that are important to her, so I didn't want her taking them to school and forgetting them when she will want to use them during this week.  So I tell her no again, and then no again, and then no again.

Assuming I won this little debate I went upstairs and made coffee and ate breakfast pretty proud of myself for holding my cool and maintaining calm so early in the morning.  The morning continued, pretty uneventful, and then it was time to get ready for school.  Dutifully both girls got their snow pants on and their coats and their hats etc.  And then like a bolt of lightning Kiya went downstairs and came back up again.  Now normally this is a regular occurrence but something was off today, something not quite right. 

I then said to Kiya, "you are not taking those markers to school".  And the debate continued.  I told her to plead her case and if it was good enough I would let her.  She did make some reasonably sound points but nothing overly convincing, so as a result the markers stayed home and my nine year old daughter stormed her way to school very upset that I caught her. 

Remarkably, I felt I did a good job.  If anyone had stolen them or one had gone missing she would be devastated. 

Darryl had the opposing view, let her take the markers and let her assume the responsibility.  And I do agree with this idea normally.  I was just unimpressed with the trying to sneak them out of the house. This is an extremely rare occasion as Kiya hasn't done this before, so it will be interesting to see what comes in the next coming weeks and if more attempts at sneaking will happen.  Would love to hear your thoughts too.  Would you have let her take the markers?