Forgery

 I got this email from Treyson's Technology teacher.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, my name is Michelle Merillat and I am Treyson’s Technology teacher at Jacobson.  He was supposed to get a signed letter from you discussing ways to help him remember to bring his earbuds/headphones to school on Day 6 so that he has them for my class.  He brought the letter back to me with a forged signature.  Please talk to him about this and let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

When I initially read this, I thought it was odd that Trey would forge one of  our signatures.  I'm not saying he is perfect, but that just didn't seem like him.  I actually couldn't understand what she was even talking about at first.  I looked at the "parent signature"  and I thought that is not mine or Trey's handwriting (see his handwriting in the body of the letter compared to the parent signature)    What is going on???  Then I realized Trey used his "best" handwriting to write my name.  It isn't my signature, but it was actually legible. Why can't he write like that all the time. I was shocked that fine penmanship came out of his hand.

  I finally put it all together and this is my response.

Ms. Merillat,

I am so sorry about this situation.  I just talked to Trey about this, and I think I am partly to blame for this miscommunication.  Before the school year started I bought Trey two sets of earbuds.  

One for home and one for school.  When school didn't start up in person right away because of COVID, I ended up giving the second set of earbuds to another family member.  

I thought I had told Trey that and I would need to get him a new pair.  Maybe I did, maybe I didn't?? Either way, he didn't know what had happened to the second set and I forgot to replace them.  

 It turns out he thought he had lost the second pair and he was afraid to bring it up because he thought he would get in trouble for losing them.  We had a good talk about working out problems and not avoiding them. 

 He should not be afraid to come to his family with a problem

I will get him a new set today and he should be good to go.

I thought it was "funny/not funny"   Trey tried to forge my signature to deal with this problem.  I told him next time go to one of his brothers for help if he doesn't want to tell a parent, but don't ignore it.

How do I get that kid to write this nice everyday?