There is A Boy. In fact, there has been A Boy for a while. He's A Boy Alexis' age who very obviously likes her. The bad news for those of us who keep trying to convince her that she's still a toddler is that she likes him, too. Or at least she did ...
He lives in our neighborhood. If that's not wildly inconvenient for those of us who keep trying to convince her that she's still a toddler, I don't know what is.
He's just A Boy.
But he made a BIG mistake.
That boy seems to have made a decision that landed him in our yard when we weren't home. Another decision led him to stand on our front porch and, well, he destroyed the monster on our door.
That monster.
He ripped it off of the door in such a way that he took some of the door's paint with the various monster teeth and such. Then he went on to tear apart a few other Halloween decorations in our yard. He went straight-out destructive.
And there was a witness.
A neighbor watched the episode unfold, at first not sure what he was seeing. But when it became clear, he intervened.
The Boy ran away. Of course.
I was livid when I found out what had happened. I think that's a fairly reasonable response.
Alexis was more livid.
She, upon hearing and seeing what had happened, went into a rage. She wanted to yell at The Boy and give him all sorts of grief because how dare he mess up her decorations! She really did put a lot of effort into helping set everything up. She's crazy proud of herself, as she should be.
Her reaction gave me pause. My very first thought as to what to do about it all was to march down to his house and tell his parents. But, like I said, her reaction gave me pause. She says she doesn't want to be friends anymore and he can "stay far, far away because I only like nice people who respect my things."
I don't disagree with her thinking. That is why I suggested that she write him a letter and tell him how she felt.
So she did. Here's what she wrote:
Dear Jerk Who Ruined My Stuff (it's possible I'm changing his name because I am almost a nice person),
I worked so hard on my Halloween decorations. A neighbor saw you ruin them. You made me so ANGRY! (And sad)
Sincerely,
Alexis
My plan for the letter was to stick it in his mailbox after he has left for school tomorrow. In other words, I'm conveniently making sure his parents see it, while also letting Alexis tell him what she thinks.
So. Your thoughts? Too much? Appropriate way to deal with it? Lay it on me, internet.