The one thing that makes Clay and Laura more mad and angry
than anything else is Lying. We just can’t
stand it and don’t tolerate it..period.
There is no giving on that one.
Well… here is a story for ya…
We have had a string of bad luck with our fish. Oreo, our black goldfish died. When we got the fish, the previous owners
warned us not to overfeed the fish, especially the goldfish. Goldfish will eat themselves to death,
literally. Well, our little Aparri tried
to help…she got a hold of the fish food….yeah not a good thing for a 3 year old
to have…. the fish definitely got way toooooo much food. We didn’t notice until later in the day when
Laura discovered the fish food bottle was down by the tank and it was ½ gone…. And
there was no sign of it anywhere. Upon
questioning, Aparri said that she had helped feed the fish…oh boy! The fish seemed to be okay, but within 2
days, it was dead. The kids were sad,
and we had a nice little burial ceremony, CJ played the harmonica, and then we
flushed Oreo down the toilet.
The kids recovered well.
However, on one of our errand outings, Clay surprised the kids by making
a stop at the petshop. They all got to
pick a new fish. CJ chose a red beta,
Preston chose a redtail shark, and Aparri chose a black goldfish. FUN!!!
Yeah, a full tank again! Well,
not for long. The little black goldfish
was gone within 3 days. (So we scooped
it out, froze it, and planned on going
back and getting a replacement on Monday,) Well, over the course of the weekend, the beta
started to not look very good. My Monday
morning, Laura was pretty sure the beta was going to be dead before the end of
the day. So, she got the bucket and
scoop ready and placed it next to the tank.
Laura then ran some errands – taking Aparri and Detric with her. Clay was home sleeping (on Mids) , CJ and
Preston wanted to stay home and watch a movie.
Well, Laura was gone approx.. 2 hours.
When she got home, she went to check on the beta. It was gone.
No where to be found….it was not in the tank! Right when she discovered this, Clay woke up…and
came in. He took a look in the tank and
couldn’t find the beta either. Hmmm…something
is “fishy”. They called all the kids in
and started the questioning. No one
would confess to doing anything with the fish.
Clay and Laura started to get mad, stating that the fish can’t get
itself out of the tank, someone had to take it out. We wanted to reassure the kids that we weren’t
mad, we just wanted to know what happened to the fish. Questioning led to intense interrogation…group
sessions, individual sessions, etc.
still nothing. We had now spent a
good hour trying to figure out the fish mystery…. And getting no where. Clay and Laura were irate at this point – in disbelief
that our children would lie to us. WHAT
HAPPENED TO THE FREAKIN’ FISH? We
finally put an ultimatum in place. We
needed a confession by the person who removed the beta by morning, or all the
fish and the tank would be gone. We
would get rid of it. Period. Oh…the crying began, “Please don’t do this…don’t
get rid of our fish… We love our fish. etc.” We responded with, “We can’t have fish in
this house if they are going to start disappearing. It is not ok.
We aren’t mad that the fish is gone, we are mad that someone is lying
and not telling us. We need the person
who did it to TELL THE TRUTH, then we can keep the fish.” All we got were , “I think the fish got out
on it’s own” “What if I tell you I did
it, but I didn’t do it, but if I just tell you I did, then can we keep the fish”
Clay and Laura stewed over it all night. They hated to get rid of the fish, the kids
like them, they liked them, but this was getting ridiculous. In the morning, Laura was just about to post
the free fish online, when she had a sudden thought….”Hmmm. Are there any options we aren’t
considering? The fish can’t get out of
that tank on their own…Laura, Aparri and Detric were gone…Clay was asleep…it
must have been one of the boys. But, I
wonder….Laura then googled, “Can catfish eat other fish?” And wouldn’t you know it…. It said that
catfish will eat dying or dead fish.
Laura couldn’t believe it (she was so excited), she called Clay in, had
him read the article and said, “What do you think? Could this be a possibility?” They both laughed and then were relieved…our
kids aren’t lying to us! The catfish ate
the beta! My goodness! We brought the kids in, told them what we had
found out, apologized and then apologized again, and then told them we would be
keeping the fish after all! We then
commended them for telling the truth!
Whew…in the end we have truth telling children and sorry, repenting
parents for doubting them! (PS..we did
replace the black goldfish, with a larger gold-goldfish, but he died too… so
for right now, we are content and happy with the redtail shark and the
catfish. They seem to be getting along
well).
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