Economics

On Friday we experienced a major triumph. Well, I did. The kids just had fun. I decided to venture out of the house and take 3 kids to Walmart, by myself. There have been very few places that I have chosen to go with all 3 kids by myself. It's heavy and a lot of work and just stressful. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked. The kids each got a $10 gift card from Auntie Alison for their birthdays...10 months ago...that we had still yet to use. I won't go into my lameness of not taking the time, or worrying about them spending it on something wasteful...I came to my senses. We headed to Walmart with the express purpose of spending that money. On the way there, a discussion came up about whether they actually want to spend their money or if they should save it. Lucy said, "we can just spend it and then mom and dad can put more money on our credit cards" (yes, it's adorable that they call it their credit card). I told Lucy it doesn't just work that way. She then responded that "it does with YOUR credit card.". Uh, no. "dad goes to work to put money on our 'credit card'. So we decided that mom and dad could come up with a list of chores that they could do to earn some money. "sure, I could empty the dishwasher for
$10!" "dishwasher is not a $10 job. Most of your jobs will be $1 or $2 and you can build up to $10.". I see this being a great learning tool, if we stick with it. The best part is it was their idea, so hopefully the learning will go better than if Tyler and I forced it on them.

Anyway, back to this trip. It was so fun to see them scour the toy aisles looking for the perfect thing that was less than $10. Their choices did not surprise me. Lucy debated over a zhu-zhu pet (one of those frivolous toys that I was so worried they would choose-these are useless to me), a Disney princess and some Pet Shops. But none of them had her REALLY excited. And then she spotted it, burried in a pile of other stuffies...a baby Marie. She's the white kitten from the Aristocats. She already has 2 others that she got from Disneyland. One from Grandma and Papa and one from Dad, she likes to remind us, even though mom convinced dad...oh well. This Marie was $8.75.

Max searched the boy aisle and saw transformers, hot wheels and iron man toys but, of course, decided on a light saber, $9. Perfect.

And they have loved them for days. Look at how excited they are to pay for their own things at the till.
The cashier even called Max a big man. So sweet.