Someone stole our Halloween pumpkins

We went to a Fall festival two week-end’s ago. It was great fun. There were hayrides, kiddie rides, a corn maze and a pumpkin patch. We selected 3 pumpkins. A Mommy, a Daddy and a little girl pumpkin was what my little girl called them. It was fun and made a great impression on her to pick her own pumpkins.

We put them out on the front porch and it just looked so festive. Every morning we’d look at them before going off for the day and we’d look at them in the evenings when we came home.

Monday morning we realized our pumpkins were missing. Ok, not a huge loss in the grand scheme of the world but it sure disappointed a little girl. It’s been a big subject for her for the past few days. She thinks some bad kids came and took our pumpkins. That probably was from overhearing my husband and I discuss it. We figure it was teenagers pulling a prank. It is cute that she thinks those bad kids should get a time out for stealing our pumpkins.

It’s also another reminder of the responsibility of a parent. How we teach her to deal with this can make a difference for her later in life. What if we act like a vigilante and question all neighborhood teenagers or act suspicious of everyone? Do we replace the 3 pumpkins and allow her to think that anytime something happens it can magically be replaced? Do we act as if we don’t care and hope she forgets it?

Yes, it’s just pumpkins but you see the dilemna here. And she’s pretty young so how do we begin to teach her that not everyone is nice and sometimes people do bad things.

We finally bought one new pumpkin. We discussed it and she knows it is to replace the ones that were stolen. Ignoring what happened didn’t seem right since it made such an impression on her and the vigilante angle is not our style so I hope we did the right thing.

On a happy note the new pumpkin looks great and we put up a few other cute decorations. The leaves are falling and the mornings are chilly winter is coming and I look forward to cold days.