Karma (?)

Last summer, Violet went to Magic Mountain with her camp. When the kids poured off the bus at the end of the day, Violet's friend ran straight up to me, pulled a small pair of plastic binoculars from under her shirt and said, "Look what Violet and I got!" Uh-oh. As if the reveal from the hiding place hadn't given it away, the fact that the kids weren't allowed to buy anything on their field trips flashed through my mind. Shit. After a mortifying next couple of hours (for both of us), Violet wrote a letter to Magic Mountain, admitted to what she had done, apologized, promised never to do it again, and put it in a package with the stolen goods and sent it back. A few days later, she received this:

Sure enough, there were two passes. I read the letter to Violet, editing out the part about the "reward." Although it may have been a sweet [albeit corporately self-serving, my cynical voice piped in] gesture, I'm not sure that "steal a $2.99 toy and earn a free trip to Magic Mountain!" is the message I want to be sending. Is this parental psychological engineering? If so, I guess I am guilty. I am also guilty of using this little carrot to my own advantage, magnanimously (and coincidentally!) "allowing" Violet to earn "pleasant points" toward going on a mommy-daughter Magic Mountain day. Well, the big day arrived yesterday (also "coincidentally" on the day the aforementioned passes expired). We invited Violet's Aunt Michele and four-year-old cousin, Clementine, along. As we approached the ticket booth, a woman came up to Michele and said, "Happy New Year," and handed her another free pass! That left us only to purchase one child's ticket and voilà! a fantastic day for all was born. As we entered the park, Violet pointed out the gift shop where the original "incident" occurred. With that little point of business out of the way, off we went. The weather was perfect, the lines were short, and the rides were super fun! I daresay a better time than Disneyland. Hmmmmmm, I wonder what happens when you shoplift from the happiest place on earth....