SomeTHING

I'm not really sure that I should be posting on this yet, but now that the sting has passed, and I have stopped worrying about it as much, I think I can finally face what happened.

Actually, I'll share an email with you that will provide all the gory details:

Hello [Band Director]!

I need to inform you of something and enlist your help with this....

To keep the school's trumpet safe from younger siblings, I asked [older child] to put it high up on a shelf in his bedroom. He did so, but yesterday, his younger brother snuck into [older brother's] room and took the trumpet into his own room. I was at the high school at the time,

Suddenly, from upstairs, the kids heard the sounds of a trumpet. They were a bit surprised and started running upstairs. Younger brother knew he was busted as he heard footsteps and tried to conceal the evidence. We're all quite aghast at what he did next. He took the trumpet and dropped it out of his bedroom window.    {sidenote:  I guess he'd been playing it through the open window for all of the neighbors to enjoy.  Ugh!}

Thankfully, at this moment, I was on the phone with [babysitting child] checking in, so I heard all that happened the moment it did, got in the car and came home.

I shared with [younger brother] that it would be his job to come into the school and tell you what happened. I'm sorry to say it, but I've painted you as a scary person. I want this experience never to be revisited in our home--or anything like it. I want him to learn that there are boundaries to other people's things and he needs to respect that. In short, I want him to be scared out of his wits.

Today, we are going to go to three different music stores to make sure the trumpet is okay and get it repaired in whatever way we can. We're going to head to two in Hillsboro and one in Beaverton. Do you have any additional suggestions?

We are all just absolutely mortified that this happened. [Older brother] had a very hard time sleeping last night and came in crying at one point. He's very fearful of how you'll respond to him from here on out and is feeling very responsible for what happened.

I am planning on bringing [younger brother] in to meet with you. I'm asking that you not take it easy on him. I want this to be a learning experience for him. Sorry to put you in this position. I didn't want him to come in to tell you what happened and not have you forewarned. What day would be best to bring him in? It will either have to be after school, or I could bring him in before school on Wednesday.

I'm so sad that we're adding to all of the horror stories you share to teach kids to take care of their instruments.

Thank you!

Julie

This is an email no parent EVER wants to have to send.

After going to the music stores, we learned that the trumpet (which we're borrowing from the school) would cost more to repair than to replace.

So, there you have it. That's a lot of money for a five-year-old to have to earn. I'm not sure how we're going to work this one out. I'm open to anyone's ideas.

The good thing is that the trumpet is probably still useable at this point. It has two dents that are just hard to get to without taking a trumpet apart and soldering it back together--therein lies the expense. So, we have the older child use it for the rest of the school year and get a new one for the school in June. We'll have the band teacher check it out for us on Tuesday to see if it really still works.