Gratitude (or lack thereof)

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
― Epicurus

The other day I took my daughter out to dinner at Noodle's.  As we were leaving the restaurant, she spotted some jumbo-sized chocolate chip cookies for sale next to the registers.

"Mom, can I have one of these for dessert?"

I shook my head. "You don't even like chocolate chip cookies that much." I think she just wanted it because it was there.  She pouted and made stompy feet all the way out to the car.

As we were driving home, I said, "How about this? I'll let you run into Express and get a little something."  Express is a local gas station.  We pulled up at the station and I dug around in my wallet. I had a five and a ten and that was it. I handed her the five.

"Do you want change back?"

"Um, YEAH! And I don't mean that you can spend $4.99 and bring me one penny."

A few moments later, she hopped back in the van, waving an Oreo ice cream bar around. "Here's your change, Mom!" She dropped three ones and a penny into my hand.

She strapped herself into her booster seat and opened her ice cream bar.  "All of the ice creams were really low," she said.  At first I thought she meant low as in quantity, like maybe the gas station was running out of ice cream and that she'd been lucky to score the one she got.

"Low?" I asked.

"Yeah, only two dollars!" To me, this didn't seem like that much of a bargain, but what do I know? What I do know is that I haven't had much luck teaching my daughter the value of money.

"I'll add it to your tab," I said. I should've just bought the damn cookie from the start.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  First off, it's worth mentioning that I took the kid to Chuck E. Cheese's to play games last night. Then I took her to the mall and bought her a pretzel from Auntie Anne's. Then I took her to Crazy 8 and bought her an outfit she desperately wanted.  The ensemble included these shoes:

We'll see if she can walk in them this summer (but on a brighter note, maybe these shoes will guarantee that she's finally tall enough to ride the rollercoasters!)

Today, in my infinite generosity, I took her to see the new Muppet movie and even let her upgrade the "Kiddie Combo" with an ICEE instead of a regular drink.

Just now she came to me and asked if she could buy a game for her iPad. It's $3.99.  She already has dozens of games on her iPad. Plus, she has countless Christmas gifts (mostly craft projects still in their boxes) that she hasn't touched.  I thought about it for all of two seconds. "No. No game."

She begged and pleaded and raided her piggy bank to gather the $3.99. However, I didn't want her money - I just felt like I should draw the line somewhere or I will end up with a spoiled brat on my hands. I've created a curly-haired monster. She kept blathering on about her need for this game so finally I said, "Okay, you do two chores and you can buy the game."

Tears sprang to her eyes like this was the worst news she'd ever heard. "CHORES!?"

I asked her to mop the kitchen and bathroom floors.  She came back within 90 seconds. Now I know why my mom used to say things like, "Boy, you girls just don't do anything unless you can do it half-assed, do you? Is that your motto? 'I do everything half-assed'?"

Finally I told her that we were done talking about the game for today. She threw herself on the floor and wailed. I took a picture but she made me promise I wouldn't post it anywhere. I could post it and swear everyone to secrecy, but I'm not sure I can trust you people.  Anyway, I'm holding firm on the "no game" stance for today. Tomorrow, I'll have to investigate new and innovative ways that I can ruin her life.