Halloween of Generosity

So, yesterday, I picked Troy up and took him to the playground near our house. We played with two little kids there, and Troy had a blast. Today, I picked him up and took him to Adventure Kids, so I could keep working. He was so excited to go that he was bouncing in the car. It was amazing to see such a transformation in him in just two days of not going to after-care. I guess he really was unhappy, but he didn’t know how to tell me. It breaks my heart to think that he was so sad, and that I had just resigned him to his fate.

After the incident on Tuesday, my wife went on the warpath against Venom. She blamed him (and me for introducing him to Troy) for all of Troy’s “killing” thoughts. So, Troy’s Halloween costume, along with claws, swords, guns, and anything else deemed destructive were locked away. That meant that Troy had nothing to go trick or treating in. I didn’t really want to reward his behavior on Tuesday either. So, I decided that his punishment would be to stay home and give out candy to others rather than getting it for himself.

The plan actually worked out really well. Troy didn’t complain about his punishment. In fact, he was really excited to get to see all of the kid’s costumes, give them compliments, and put the candy in their bags. And when we ran out of candy, he even offered to give away his own candy, so that everybody got some! As far as a lesson in generosity goes, it was a huge success, and we didn’t really have to stress about Halloween. Win-win!