Sweet Sweet Reward

When the Drama Queen turned four last year, she was "promoted" to the next Sunday School class. This meant a move from upstairs to downstairs and of course a new teacher. Mrs. P was so kind and sweet to our little girl - we knew it would be a good transition. We were not prepared, however, for the gargantuan bag of treats the Drama Queen brought home that first Sunday. The brown paper sack was filled with full-size candy bars, bags of Skittles, and ring pops! Since Mrs. P knew our daughter had two little brothers at home, she put three of everything in the bag. Yes, people, this meant that there were three full-size Snickers bars in there as well as three bags of gummy bears and three more of whatever treats Mrs. P chose to send home that week.

We thought it must have been a special Sunday for every kid in that class to be able to take home such treat bags! (There were 25 kids or so in her class). But we were very wrong - every Sunday the Drama Queen brought home yet another bag stuffed with candy treats. It didn't take us long to learn how to quickly intercept the treat bags after the service. We fell into a standard routine - take the treat bag from the Drama Queen, quickly analyze its contents and find something small the kids could enjoy on the way home (i.e. nothing chocolate!), and then put the bag away in the pantry "for later." Having their sweet tooths immediately satisfied, the kids would forget about the rest of the candy.

The Nerd and I, however, would not. Anything chocolate was shortly consumed or put in the freezer for those chocolaty cravings later on. Other candies, such as Skittles and gummy bears, were put into a container for "potty treats." It got so bad that the Nerd and I would be huddled by the van, checking to see what treats we (I mean the kids of course!) got that day. Some Sundays we would crow with delight upon finding Reese's Peanut Butter cups or Three Musketeers bars. Other weeks we would be disappointed to find only ring pops and laffy taffy.

Oh sure. We commiserated with the other parents of the class, laughing at jokes that Mrs. P had stock in all the local dentists and complaining that rewarding the kids' good behavior with sugary treats was setting the bar a little high.

Truth was, we loved it. Not only were we getting sweet treats to look forward to every week, but a teacher cared enough about our little girl to spoil her a little and send treats home for her brothers too. (shh, don't tell Mrs. P she was really spoiling us!)

This past June all the kids got promoted again, and the Drama Queen moved on to another, decidedly-less candy-filled class. We were not disappointed for long, however, as the Beast got his turn at being in Mrs. P's class. Although I worried that his autism and lack of attention would hinder him from being in a "regular" class, he seemed to hit it off well with Mrs. P. Who wouldn't? The woman is a regular candy store!

So the Nerd and I still get our weekly treats. This week we scored some packages of Rolos, which I decided to make into Rolo pretzel treats (here's the recipe - so easy and wickedly delicious!) I don't know how Mrs. P does it - but we (and our ever hungry sweet tooths) are eternally grateful!