Honesty

The situation in which Wanda finds herself is difficult. She is faced with the dilemma of how to settle the account, which at this point seems unlikely to be settled. The dolls have little monetary value, and likely have sentimental value to the child Karen.

In this situation, Wanda should keep the two issues separate. There is a means by which the account can be settled. Following those proper channels may not be successful, but the cost should be paid by the parent and not the child. That Sheila would suggest she pay by check in the mail but would collect the dolls in person indicates that she has little if any inclination to pay for the services.

Ultimately, if Wanda keeps the dolls she is choosing to punish the child for the parent's transgression. Worse, Wanda herself could have avoided the situation had she been more objective. She clearly was taking a risk by allowing Karen to attend in the first place. She should realize that she broke her own policy and in doing so allowed this situation to exist in the first place. She is still fully warranted in addressing the issue with Sheila by various means, including the available legal remedies. However, using Karen's dolls to settle the debt is transferring the debt from the parent to the child. Such transferal of debt to a third party is dishonest at the best of times.

This type of ethical dilemma is tempting. It allows the person (Wanda) to get out of a situation that exists in part because of a poor decision that she made to allow Karen into the facility in the first place. There appears to be only one way to resolve the issue but that is only because other methods have not yet been considered. It may come to pass that no method is going to work, which is an unfortunate outcome. However, since Wanda chose to bear that risk, she should accept that she has to bear the consequences when the risk proves to occur.