Normally my blogs are light-hearted and about me rambling on about my daughter’s sleeping habits—this time I’m going to talk about some serious stuff. Elly is sleeping well now, but my wife and I aren’t.

When we came back from Christmas dinner with my in-laws, we discovered our back door was wide open: we had been robbed. They didn’t destroy the place, but they stole thousands of dollars in electronics and our safe that had all of our personal information in it (no money). It would’ve been soul-crushing to begin with, but being on Christmas it hurt a lot more. We’re insured, but the damage is far worse than financial.

Elly didn’t seem to realize what was going on when the police showed up, which was a good thing. She probably just figured we had guests. However, the next day she wanted to watch some of her cartoons on Netflix and realized that my laptop and PlayStation were gone—the two devices she watches her shows on. She started crying and started to cue in on the fact that something was terribly wrong.

I don’t know if she’ll remember it, or how much of it she can understand at 2-and-a-half-years-old, but I tried to be honest with her.

I said, “Elly, two bad people broke into our house and they took our things. They’re gone and we’re probably not going to ever get them back. I’m sorry.”

A big toddler hug and some tears followed. At least she’s safe, but they stole everything they’d need to steal her identity—let me tell you it is very hard to make an ID-Theft claim on a child when the people stole the very papers you need to confirm it. No child should have to worry about identity theft.

We’re moving in January.