Claire

So here's what's going on with Claire.... About 2 1/2 weeks ago, she was let out of school for the summer, all excited that she could finally enjoy some time at home w/out obligation to waking up all early on a M-F basis. However, something was weird when she came home on the last day of school and failed to give us her Report Card Final for the year to inform us whether or not she was going to be advanced to the next grade or if she was struggling and we'd hold her back. We asked her where it was and first she said she didn't get one. And I asked her if she had turned in her library books at school because most times they'll hold a report card if you don't pay for the book that wasn't returned. She said no, so I asked if she owed money for anything at all, and she again, said, no. So a couple of days go by and I couldn't believe that she didn't get one so we touched on the topic again and she explained that she wasn't happy with her grades and so she threw the report card in the trash. I explained to her that doing that doesn't help us know how she did and if she was promoted to 4th grade or again was struggling so we would keep her in the third grade the following year. I saw her grades posted on the school's website and so I took it upon myself to inform her of the grades she'd received and how good they were because in reality we didn't want her to be too hard on herself. Sure you want your child to be hard on themselves a bit, but not be so hard that everything around them seems to be doing better than they are.
As the summer has gone on, I had really wished I'd seen the last comments of how she was doing in the classroom, and what they'd like to see her improve on. This would allow me to assess any type of need during these summer months so that she can be comfortable with the issues she may or may not be having in certain subjects. For the past couple of weeks she's been showing signs of improvement, negative feeling wise, on herself, and it's been quite enjoyable and we just let the whole report card thing go so that we weren't so focused on being hard on her, making her believe that she needs to, in-turn, be hard on herself.
Today I come home to this in my mailbox:

I am SO mad right now that when I asked Claire about this, she just responded with "Yeah, that's why I didn't get my report card." OH MY GOD! I screamed on the top of my lungs with the loudest screech I think I could have ever let out. I don't know what to do. We're on a limited income and this may not seem like a lot to many people, but it is when you do NOT expect such a "bill" that you were never informed about prior to the bill being received. Claire took lunch to school every day and every morning she had breakfast before going to school and she never once told us that she was still hungry after breakfast, nor did she inform us that she had eaten a second lunch when she was still hungry at school. I think above all, I am hurt by her bad choices of practically stealing (because she's not paying for something that she obviously took), and lying to us (by not telling us what really happened with her report card.). I'm so bitter and hurt by this that I honestly feel she should be the one who pays back the money by doing things over the summer at her school to inform her that stealing doesn't come with a free sign, it comes from a place that eventually will catch up with you and you need to take responsibility for what has been taken (or eaten) w/out payment. 

I have e-mailed the woman who is in charge of this situation, as requested in the letter informing her of my thought process including her being the one who repays the school by cleaning or doing things there that may be able to be considered repayment. Because personally, it's not MY responsibility to pay for something that Claire legitimately did and knew she wasn't supposed to. She needs to step up and be the one who takes blame and responsibility for this obligation she chose to take part in.  Hopefully she'll get back to me on Monday but as indicated on the letter I received, their hours are practically the same as mine at work.

So we'll see. Hopefully I'll hear something shortly because honestly, we don't just have nearly $20 that doesn't go to bills or gas to get us to and from work which pays our bills.