Egged

To the person who egged my house last night:

I understand. You were hanging out with friends and looking for something to do. It was late and no one was making the best choices anymore. Someone suggested egging some houses. Maybe you were even the instigator. But somehow you found yourself walking down the street, eggs in hand. I don't know what made you pick our house. I'm guessing there's a pretty good chance you have no idea who we are. Or our neighbor across the street that you also egged. I'm guessing you didn't really put any thought into what you were doing. Because if you did, you might have though about who lives in the houses you egged. You make have stopped to think that while you are a teenager, not all houses are filled with teens. In fact, the houses you chose both have small children. One has a baby that hasn't been sleeping well. That was the baby's window you hit, by the way. The other house- my house- also has small children. And unfortunately, the littlest had woken up just minutes before you happened by. I had just taken her back to her room when she heard a terrifying noise. She's already fearful of "punder" (thunder) and windy nights. But last night we heard something repeatedly hitting the window. Was someone breaking in during the night? Her little self was shaking in terror. I quickly figured out we had been egged on both upstairs windows (and in the morning we discovered the other  place you hit), but no amount of reassurance was adequate for my 3 year old. She wouldn't leave my side. And even curled into my side, under my protective arm, she continued to shake. All day she talked about whether someone was going to come back with eggs to get her. She doesn't want to sleep at home because she is scared. And I get to be the one dealing with this.

My husband and I got up this morning, cleaned the windows, cleaned the screens, and picked egg shells from all the little nooks and crannies they were in. My husband climbed on the roof to spray off all the eggs. And we will pay to replace the screen you put a big hole in. But I will also repeatedly try to reassure my little one that no one is going to get her and that she is safe. Because she has a steel trap of a memory, I'm not sure how long it will take for her to let it go.

I'm sure if you knew all this before, there would be no way you would have egged our house. There would be no way it would have still seemed worth it. But you didn't know and you didn't think. So do me a favor- next time, take a moment to think about your actions.  Think about how it could affect someone.  Hopefully, it will prevent you from doing something like this again.

And for the record, of everyone on the block, I'm still glad it was us. I'm glad you didn't get the neighbor in a wheelchair. It would have been really tough on that elderly person to clean up the mess.  I'm glad you didn't get the neighbor with heart problems and a very large dog. You better be glad you didnt get them too! Maybe someday you'll have a family if your own. A few little kiddos. And a careless teenager will egg you. And then you'll know. You'll know what really happened the night you egged a few houses with friends.

-the mom of 3 little kiddos