I like picking laundry off the floor as much as anyone else. But when the children, lovely little cherubs all, spread it all over the laundry room floor and then deny they've ever been near the place, heads are gonna roll. I was almost sure who the culprit was but I decided to pit the angels against each other and see who got cast out of heaven.
"Tio! Doc! Kit! Get up here. There's laundry all over the basement floor and all of you can't be innocent. Therefore you will stand here until one of you tells me they've been digging through bags of laundry and leaving it strewn all over. That means two of you are going to stand here for nothing. I apologize for that but I won't be lied to." Then I left them to it.
It took less then a minute for them to turn on each other and out the guilty party but he still wouldn't admit it. I went back to sweeten to pot. "You know, the longer you have to stand here, the more the two innocent ones are going to want to get even. I might just let them choose a punishment." I tried not to look too much directly at Doc but it was clear that he needed to cleanse his little conscience.
Unfortunately, he was being stubborn. It took another 5 minutes of the others pleading with him to fess up, and a further 5 on top after I told them I'd make it up to the innocents with a treat. Finally, it was too much for the little guy and he admitted that he'd been throwing laundry around.
That's when the fun started. Tio and Kit went right for the throat and described all the various punishments their baby brother should endure for making them stand there for "hours and hours" (8 minutes). Bedtime hours early, no supper, standing in the middle of the floor for the rest of the day were all mentioned. The topper that drove poor Doc almost to tears was the threat of only one or two stories at bed instead of the usual three. He finally cracked and gave me such a pleading look to help dig him out of the hole.
I suggested he apologize for lying to us all. I think they all got the message about how I feel about lying
