Can I borrow your sweatshirt?

I've written before about Mark's propensity for losing things, especially sweatshirts and lunch boxes (we've gone through six lunch boxes already this year). And now, in some strange karmic retribution, those items are returning...

Some items, like his camouflage lunch box, come back on their own. Mark mentioned that he'd brought it home, in a tone that suggested a reward for such thoughtfulness.

"Oh, great!" I said. "Where'd you find it?" (It's been missing for a month.)

"I dunno," he answered. "It just showed up on my desk yesterday."

And that, parents, is why I write Mark's name on every single thing he owns. He may not be responsible enough to keep track of it, but the school office staff is.

In another reversal of fortune, Mark has found, not lost, sweatshirts lately. You'd think I'd be relieved he's actually adding to his wardrobe, but truth be told, I'm a little worried. He says he's found the clothes, but it seems a little suspicious to me that he's finding the exact styles and sizes of clothing he really likes.

The first occurrence was when I picked him up a couple weeks ago and he was wearing a bright red sweatshirt I'd never seen before.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked.

"On the playground," he answered. "Somebody just left it there. Can you BELIEVE someone would just leave their sweatshirt on the playground?"

I thought of all the times Mark had done exactly that, and said, "Um, yes, actually I can."

I checked the sweatshirt for a name tag, but there wasn't one. I explained that it was great he'd picked it up, but perhaps the proper place for it was in the lost and found, not in his personal closet.

"Fine, but we should wash it first," he said. And once it got home, it never left.

I should have been more strict about returning the sweatshirt, but I wasn't. As a result, he's acquired two more the same way. Neither had names in them, and neither were returned.

I am worried that he's not so much finding them anymore, but that he's taking them. I explained that it's not okay to steal, even if it is just a ratty old sweatshirt somebody left behind. I also explained that there's a difference between finding a sweatshirt on an empty playground vs. finding one on a crowded playground as the recess bell is ringing. I explained that he'd better not take sweatshirts home just because he likes them, because that is stealing, not finding!

"I know," he huffed indignantly, as though I am the dumbest person alive. Then he killed his case by saying, "This sweatshirt is soooo comfy..."

I figured I'd take a more indirect route back to the proper owners. I allowed Mark to wear the sweatshirts to school. That way, he wasn't stealing clothes so much as borrowing them. In the meantime, Mark is warm, dressed appropriately, and we don't fight about clothes every morning. And I know it's just a matter of time before he, too, leaves them on the playground, and they find their way back to either the original owner or to the lost and found.

It's a tough job raising kids. But it's a tougher job not raising thieves!