Remorse...

I have a confession to make, I have a bit of a temper. It flared today, not too bad, but it flared. There is one thing I don't tolerate, and that is lying. Addy lied to me this afternoon about something totally stupid. I thought I handled it pretty well. She was punished by not being able to go and play with her friend after lunch. We had weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It wasn't pretty. She is my stubborn child who doesn't back down. After we both calmed down, I made the mistake of walking into the playroom. It was a complete disaster. It usually is a disaster and it doesn't bother me too much because I don't see it all the time. Today it really made me mad, especially when I saw the writing everywhere. Addy is 7 and she still feels the need to label everything with her name. What really made me snap was the mural on the wall. She wanted to make the wall look pretty, so she drew a scene with a Christmas tree and presents on the wall. I snapped! The only positive was that she told me the truth that she was the one who drew on the wall. I escorted her to her room and asked her not to come out. 30 minutes and 4 trash bags later, I had removed every toy that I could and stuffed everything into the storage closet. I'm starting to feel a little bad about this and that maybe it wasn't the way to handle this. I'm rationalizing by telling myself at least I didn't yell and scream and beat my child. Now I have to figure out a way for the kids to earn their toys back. By confessing this, I hope somewhere, someone is laughing because they have either done or wanted to do the same thing. Anyone?