Vandalism

[whatamess]

... he told me cheerfully he had said 'I told him that my friend made me do it and my friend said Bravo! when I did it!'...

How confusing! First the cool sound of breaking glass at his hand, followed by cheers from his playmate! Then, to learn that this whole scenario was a hoax! We are not supposed to break glass, no matter the thrilling sound it makes and we are to understand that when some children cheer for us that might be bad. Life is one big lesson when you're five and believe me he has not gotten all the intracacies of the human psyche and the social rules from this one incident and so, don't be too suprised if he does something equally unacceptable in short order-these lessons are sometimes not transferable! He knows: do not break glass in the neighbor's building with 9 year old friend, very incident specific- please plan for many more lessons of this sort in the future.

 

[Malika]

Yes, you're right wam except... J is in some ways young for his age and in others... he is five going on fifteen. Serious! He knows very well it was he who was the originator, not the friend and he knows that it was wrong. He would like to do it again but not get caught, I think...

 

[whatamess]

He would like to do it again but not get caught, I think...

Who wouldn't?! I'm sure it's not the fact that it is damaging someone's else's property that was the exciting part- it was taking aim, hitting and the tinkling of glass afterward! If you lined up a series of glass windows and handed me some rocks and told me to give it a go, I would!

 

[InsaneCdn]

They have a fundraiser in our parts for a certain charity... people donate cars that are total write-offs (i.e. not necessarily by an accident, maybe a blown engine in a total rust bucket)... and then the charity holds a "car bashing fund-raiser", where you pay X dollars for a chance to take a swipe at the car with a sledgehammer. Safety glasses provided. And the first things to get hit are always... the windows.

 

[Malika]

Just a small update... the brother came up to the house this morning to say he had telephoned the owners of the house who told him to leave it boarded up until they next come in April next year and at that time we'll sort out what to do... suits me. He was very charming and said "Oh they're just young" - Terry's boys will be boys...

 

[SuZir]

Life is one big lesson when you're five and believe me he has not gotten all the intracacies of the human psyche and the social rules from this one incident and so, don't be too suprised if he does something equally unacceptable in short order-these lessons are sometimes not transferable! He knows: do not break glass in the neighbor's building with 9 year old friend, very incident specific- please plan for many more lessons of this sort in the future.

I have to agree with this. Now J knows he is not supposed to break a glass of the shed. That may even transfer to 'do not break windows', but it is very unlikely that it would transfer to:
'Do not drop a sugar cube to gas tank of the car' or
'Do not use flash light to blind a person driving a car' or
'Do not put stones to train tracks' or
'Do not drop snow balls from the bridge to the cars on the highway under it' or
'Do not put tennis ball into the tailpipe of teacher's car' or
'Do not set off fireworks in anyone's mailbox' or...

For some reason young boys often seem to have never ending creativity when it comes to ways to cause damage and get themselves into troubles.

 

[Malika]

This is a very detailed list, SuZir I shan't share it with J.