Broken Rose

I have this gold dipped rose that Cody gave me as a present for our anniversary one year. It has sentimental value to me. I typically keep it on a bookshelf high out of reach. I rearranged the bookshelf and didn't put it back up yet.

Zach played with my rose by beating it against the couch. It snapped on the stem and now my long stem rose has about 3 or 4 inches of stem on it. He then put the rose back on the table and continued to play. No telling me he broke it, no apology, just play.

I came out to the livingroom to do something and he sees me and starts telling me he is sorry. He's so so so so sorry.
"Why are you sorry?"

I didn't mean to break it

"what did you break?"

your rose

"How did you break it?"

I was just hitting it against the couch.

... I told his friend to go home and she did. Zach went to his room. He and I had words. I asked him why he broke it and he said he didn't realize it was important. I told him that even if it were unimportant, it's still mine and he had no right to break it. He had no right to play with my things by hitting them until they broke. I thought i'd taught him better then that.

I realize he'll break stuff and truthfully, I kind of like it without the long long stem and I'm sure I can still use what's left as decoration. My problem is he played with my things by breaking them, hid it, and then continued to play with his friend. He didn't apologize or tell me about it until I would have found it on my own. That is the part that bothers me.

I called Cody to tell him what happened. I cleaned some more around the house. I went back to my desk and found a note from Zach and a packet of his valentine's day candy. The note said how very sorry he was. That he's so so so sorry he made me cry. He asked if I wanted him to run away now? Then it has a little drawing of him out in the rain.... sad... with the house behind him. He wrote a "PS. I love you mom" and a PSS that he would help me clean a whole list of things around the house.

It was really sweet and he feels awful about breaking my rose. We found a new way to display it, we discussed not ever running away no matter what he breaks, we cleaned parts of the house etc. I think that he understands why I was sad and that it's not an appropriate toy for him. He promised not to hide anything broken from me next time or run away. We're all okay now... except the rose :-p