What goes up, must come down, or children are listening better than I thought they were

Last night, Zachary and Chayce decided to climb to the top of Chayce's 4-drawer dresser (which is taller than either of them) and jump from it onto Chayce's toddler bed. Most of the wooden cross-beams cracked like ribs getting kicked by a horse, though we did not discover this until asking Chayce to go to bed. She said she couldn't go to bed, because her bed was broken. I assumed she meant the fitted sheet came off and just told her to fix it and get in bed. Payge said "nooo, dayee, iz broken!!".

I an attempt to teach them to be careful with things, I took Zachary up to his room and said "what would you buy if I gave you $20?" I of course expected him to answer some toy, which I would then point out that when he is not careful, he is considering the opportunity to break something more desirable than the toy. A good way to teach basic economic theory and introduce opportunity cost, I thought.

His answer? He would buy Payge a new doll to replace the one Zachary had defaced with permanent marker. I felt quite blessed that he had obtained some awareness of the consequence of his actions and that he wanted to make up for them.

So then I went back to Chayce, intending to use the same strategy with her. I asked her what she would do if I gave her $20 and she could spend it any way she wanted. She said she'd buy a new bed.

All in all, it looked like the lesson had been learned before I had a chance to teach it. These children must have a good mommy.