Friday, October 14, 2011

Life Lesson of the Week

I'm not sure who will learn more from this lesson.  I was trying to teach Kaylie something, but I think Justin and I learned more.  About a month ago, Kaylie got the little Scholastic paper fliers to order books through her school.  She showed us some books that she wanted and we picked out 3 cheap ones.  Well, the other day we got three more fliers.  Kaylie was super excited "to help out the school", grabbed her pen and started going through the pages.  Then, I realized that she was not just circling the books she wanted, but was filling out the order form.  She had at least 8 things ordered, including a $30 Phineas and Ferb Nintendo DS game.  We do not have a DS.  She realized that she made a mistake and asked me to help her.  However, she just wanted to switch it to the Wii game instead of the DS game.  (Not the point, Kaylie!)  I told her multiple times to stop filling out the order form, and just circle the books on the other pages (progressively getting louder and more frustrated every time).  Finally, she gave up filling out the forms, but was insistent that she wanted all of the books because it would help her school.  We postponed the argument for another day.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, Kaylie brings it up again.  "Mommy, I just want to get all of those books because it will help my school."  This is when I realize that the situation did not blow over and that she simply does not understand how much all of these books cost.  Lesson time!
"Kaylie, we cannot afford to buy all of those books, we will get just a couple" (Some of them are $1, so it actually is kind of worth it because Kaylie needs more age appropriate books now)
"Mommy, I just want all of them because I really want to help my school."
"Kaylie, I really want to be able to feed you dinner every night instead of buying a ton of books"
"OK, well I just don't want to eat supper every night"
"You want to starve!?!?!"
"Some nights, yes, it would be okay.  I just really want those books."
(Ok, let's try something else)
"Kaylie, in order to buy those books you want, you would have to sell every single toy you have in the house to pay for the books"
"Ok! I think I want to do that!"
(Oh no! This is not going as I planned! Who is this kid?!?! She wants to sell every single toy, for a few books!?!?!)
"Not all of the toys are yours to sell Kaylie"
"Well I will sell all of my animals except for my whale"
I decide at this point, to just give up on the conversation and start the discussion over later.  So, we get home and I'm sitting on the couch with Justin talking about our day, when Kaylie comes out.  She has a bag full of stuffed animals and she starts heading for the front door saying "I'm going to go to the neighbor's to sell them my animals."  (WHAT HAVE I DONE!!?!?!?!?)  After laughing for a minute, and then realizing that she's completely serious and is unlocking the front door, we tried to explain that the neighbors wouldn't want to buy her stuffed animals.  For the next 15 minutes, she keeps coming to us with crafts she made in Sunday school and other useless junk like this, asking if she could ask the neighbors to buy them.  Kaylie keeps making comments like "I just really want to sell my stuff so that I can get those books" and "I think the parents would really like this because it has a Bible word on it".  We finally convince to stop finding her junk to sell. 

As of now, she's deciding between birthday presents at her party in a few weeks or ordering the books now.  She is having a lot of trouble deciding.  I feel as though she has learned nothing valuable so far.  However, Justin and I learned how persistent Kaylie can be and not to give her options that we wouldn't go for, no matter how crazy they sound. 

3 comments:

  1. Hahahaha, this made me laugh so hard! Like actually laughing... out loud... alone in my dorm room :) Thank goodness she'd keep that whale -- I spent way too long drawing the thing for it to be sold!

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  2. Love all your posts!!! :) Keep writing, I love hearing all your stories :) and especially about how God helps you through prayer is motivating me to be more patient!

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