Sisters and Their Secrets

My kids share a room, and have since birth. While sometimes it is inconvient like when one child has the flu, overall, it has been a wonderful bonding experience for them. On more than one occasion Eric and I have heard the girls talking and laughing in their room before bedtime.

Last year my friend Michelle loaned her childhood bunk beds for my kids to share. They were so excited about these beds. They switch who gets the top and bottom bunk every couple of weeks because each bed has a perk. The top bunk uses a ladder and the bottom bunk is shared with the family dog.

Over the last couple of months I have noticed more secret telling then usual between the girls. I even commented about this to my sister Linnay and said that I thought they were telling jokes about me and I attributted their shared bedroom as a factor. We all know that siblings bond over telling goofy stories about their beloved parents...I know my siblings and did. I just figured this was going to be the beginning of a lot of conversations and "inside jokes" about their parents. Frankly, if talking about mom and dad was going to get those girls to get along, they could talk all night!

Little did I know what secret they were really bonding over.

While cleaning out there room recently, I picked up Cameron's piggy bank and realized it was empty. That's strange, I thought. So I picked up Kaylee's piggy bank. It weighed about 20 lbs. (okay that's a slight exaggeration, but it was really heavy.)

I confronted Kaylee immediately. She denied any wrong-doing. She swore up and down that she didn't take any of the money, however, she did admit that Cameron was giving the money to her.

Something didn't add up for me. Kaylee was put in time out while I asked Cameron where she thought her money went. Cameron was pensive about this question, treading lightly, knowing the wrong words could get her in trouble.

"Well sometimes when I am lying on the top bunk I am too tired to get out of bed to turn off the light. So....I give Kaylee money to do it." Cameron stated without looking at my face.

"Really? Do you give Kaylee money for anything else?" I asked in disbelief.

"Well...you know that beef stir fry you made the other night. You said I couldn't leave the table without eating it, so Kaylee ate it instead. I gave her money for it."

"So, you have been paying Kaylee to do your chores."

"No, I just give her money to do stuff I don't want to do like turning on the fan in our bedroom at night because I get sooooo hot."

After talking to Kaylee about it, their stories match up. Once again, this is another parenting situation in which no book can tell me how to deal with. I am fairly certian that they got the idea because I was paying them extra allowance to have more spending money on our vacation to Florida. I thought it was good idea at the time. In this situation who is at fault? Who deserves the punishment?

Is it Kaylee for knowing that her sister doesn't know the difference between 10 dollars or 10 cents?

Is it Cameron who is too lazy to turn out the lights or too stubborn to eat her own food?

Right now we are just shaking out head and laughing about it. Really they were both benefiting from the arrangement. Apparently the lesson I learned was our kids are not ready to deal with money and I think we will be putting it all into a checking account.

Cameron's piggy bank has a code on it which I have changed since finding out about the secret. She can only put money in the bank and not take it out. Although it is a number code she believes that the bank opens when she uses the secret code. Recently, I heard her in her bedroom saying "Princess" to her bank while turning the dial, but to no avail...this bank remained indefinately closed.

This story was quite humorous to our family members and they have even been giving Cameron some change to refill her piggy bank. When her nana and papa retold the story to the girls' uncle Brad, Kaylee adds, "Sometimes it takes Cameron two weeks before she pays me the money she owes me." Oh boy. They had us fooled for awhile now.

The girls will always have their secrets and it will probably always been something they don't want their mom or dad to find out. That's okay with me as long as they are pretty harmless like this secret, and I hope that it will help them blossom into wonderful friends as they grow older.

The only questions remains is for my older sister, Linnay. I have some change, do you want to do my chores? I'll promise to keep it a secret!