The Wall of Shame

    Some people use the top of the refrigerator, others use the garage and for a select group the closet. Now I'm not talking sexually here, although all viable spaces in most books. I'm talking about the spot where we as parents, or care-givers of a child, put toys that are on "time out". In most cases I have heard the time out will last anywhere from 5 minutes to a week or more. In our house I have been using the outside of a cupboard in the kitchen. It's located above the stove in the middle of the kitchen area with ample light to highlight exactly what it is. I use clear scotch tape to secure the item in lock down, so as not to hide the contents. Now so far it has worked out to my advantage that most of the items that are placed here are of a very small nature. I would think a scooter or bike might pose a big problem should I have the desire to place an item such as that on "the wall of shame", but don't get me wrong I would do it. I just think the amount of tape and the lost functionality of the space in the kitchen might out weight the true reason for the discipline. Plus the anger along with the profanities that would be shouted at midnight after I hit my head on it, while heisting a brownie or cookie from the kitchen, just wont be worth it. 

    My sister used to put items on top of their refrigerator when my niece or nephew would lose the privilege to play with them. I remember being there one night for dinner with several different items on top of the refrigerator. The next time we went to their house the top of the refrigerator was clear, but the stack in the garage was getting close to the size of a smart car. She said they needed more space so they moved the "time out" location to the garage. She giggled, as us parents often do, when she said the look on the kids faces each time they walk by the pile is priceless. Although I have not yet moved to the refrigerator, the garage or even the trash can as a place to display toys or items that are removed from the rotation of play due to a negative response, I'm sure I will try it all at least once. 

    The latest toy to fall victim to my wall of shame was all thanks to Evey. In a round about way I could say it's actually because of the love of Lego's from the boys. The boys are currently enthralled with Toy Story and therefore our house has several Toy Story themed Lego's thrown about it. Funny enough the boys interests have now become Evey's. I'm not sure if it is simply a true interest in the items or actually an interest in having a defiant voice when taking the items from the boys and running away with them that we are dealing with at this point. However, she has found an unbreakable bond to Jessie the fair skinned, red haired, cowgirl with an assertive attitude. If you ask Cody he will say Jessie is Trevor's, considering it came from a set Trevor had received as a gift. If you ask Trevor he will say it's everyone because we continually try to instill that all the toys we have are to be shared with everyone, and Trevor does like to kiss ass a bit. If you ask Evey she will say, "MY JESSIE". We constantly try to remind all the kids that the item is not theirs, but that it is all of ours. Evey is no doubt the hardest one to get this message to resonate with. Cody is a close second.

     The frustration that I have is that Evey continually disregards the "no Lego's in the car" policy that is always in effect. She smuggles it in her closed fist, in her cute little brown purse, her pink sweatshirt pocket and even her sock. I feel like she's training herself for the possibility of being a "mule" or drug runner later in life. She's good too. She always smiles and plays the "oh, sorry daddy" card in hopes of getting out of trouble. I always tell her I'm immune to her ways. Missy says a lesser man would crack, not sure if that's a back handed compliment. In any account I'm not playing those games.

     Now on this most recent smuggle run she made it to the land of the free. She brought Jessie in the car,via her pink sweatshirt, to get her hair cut. I did notice her hands fumbling around inside the front pocket while playing after her hair was cut while we waited for the other kids to get their cuts completed. Truth be told I didn't clue in to what she was doing at that moment. It took me some time still before her heist came to light. After getting home I unloaded the kids and sent them inside the house. For Evey, we had removed her sweater before getting in the car and buckling her in her car seat. So after sending everyone inside I found myself holding her sweatshirt. I walked across the street to check the mail and while fumbling for the key to open our mail box I suddenly heard a kind of hollow sound of something hitting the ground. When I looked down to see what it was I saw a familiar item. It was the body of a Lego person that had an identical look as the Jessie that Evey carries around. A positive identification came immediately when I noticed the head of the Lego missing. A tell-tell sign that Evey has been involved. Like any normal little girl does, she constantly removes the heads of any Lego person she comes in contact with. After seeing the body, I checked the pocket for the remains of Jessie and sure enough her head was floating around in that pink pocket. After getting the mail and putting the poor Lego back together I hunted the house for Evey. I found her in her room still taking off her shoes and I proceeded to express my frustrations to her about the current scenario. That's code for yelling at her and asking her to please stop taking the heads of the Lego's off of the bodies that they belong to. After upsetting her to the point of tears I ushered her out to the kitchen. I told her to stand in the middle of the area while I got the scotch tape. I explained to Evey that Jessie was going to be spending the next few days on "The wall of shame" for the smuggling that occurred while going to the hair cut place. In true caring fashion I made Evey watch while I secured Jessie to the cupboard. After that I put the tape away and picked up Evey. I'm the kind of guy, also known as an A-hole, where I walk over to Jessie with Eve in my arms and show her exactly what is going on. The look on Evey's face while I put her a foot away from Jessie taped to the cupboard tells me she gets it and there's no reason to continue to drive the point home. Plus the comments that will be expressed to Evey by her brothers and sisters will be reminder enough for her. I especially like it when Cody says something like, "Evey, Jessie up there. You can't play with her. It not my toy". As if he wants to point out and rub it in that the item currently up for display was not one of his, therefore it is not he who is suffering this time. Jessie is still up on the cupboard and all the kids have had a chance to ask Evey and I what happened to result in such a thing. Today is Saturday and Jessie will be released from "the wall of shame", thus removing the scarlet letter that has been Evey's since Tuesday. Missy will be please to get a clean look in the kitchen back, the kids will be happy to have the Lego's complete, Evey will be excited to be out of the spot light and I will be anticipating my next victim to be taped to "the wall of shame".