To The Toy Store We Went!

Much to my dismay, my children decided that this beautiful sunny day was the day we would go to the store and spend the money they made from their freezie stand. I figured that since they may be counting up to $40 in mostly quarters, we should probably go very early in the morning.

They spent approximately 2 hours deciding what to buy. During that time they learned a few harsh lessons:

1. Toys cost a lot of money
2. The amount of money they had was finite
3. They could not buy the whole store and had to choose what they truly wanted

...and finally

4. That Mommy would not "top-up" the amount they needed for a toy that cost more than the amount they had!

They took their time picking and choosing, adding and subtracting as they figured out how much they wanted to spend. My son wanted to spend as little as possible because, as he so eloquently put it, "I still want to have lots of money" while my daughter was quite content to spend every last cent she had earned.

When we finally arrived at the cash with our very, very, very, carefully chosen toys, I warned the cashier that they would be giving her the money. She gave them a look and then me, one mixed with slight annoyance and disbelief, but I chose to ignore it in favour of my children having the full experience of choosing and then paying for something they earned themselves, by themselves.

I don't know what was more thought provoking for me, the fact that no one seemed to mind the line getting progressively longer and longer as each of my children counted out almost 30 dollars in mostly quarters or the fact that the high school cashier needed to count each one twice as she messed up the first time for each child respectively. She joked that no one uses cash anymore, I joked that it was because no one knew how to count anymore.

We were there for 2 hours and 37 minutes in total before we finally left the store.

I buckled my son into his car seat with his chosen prize-a great white shark made by Animal Planet-and then went around to buckle my daughter in, only to hear a sad little voice say "mommy, my shark has a tear in its mouth"

F***!

He said that it would be fine and he would play with it anyway, but then I asked him if he would be truly happy with his shark or if we should go in and exchange it for a new one. Now my son is the type of person who will do just about anything to avoid confrontation, including accepting something that he is not happy with, so this became yet another learning opportunity along with a way to round out the total time at the toy store to a good 3 hours.

So back in we went, him clutching his shark and his receipt, begging me to deal with it for him. I refused, not because I was tired, hungry and sick of the toy store, but because I wanted him to learn that he can stand up for himself and be okay.

He went up to the man and said "I bought this 5 minutes ago and noticed in the car that its mouth was ripped. Can I get one that is not ripped"?

And the man was so surprised with the little boy who could barely reach the counter that he offered to go with my son to find a perfect one.

And they did.

And my son was happy, "100 percent".

And so was I, because just as its important to learn numeracy, it is also important to learn how to stand up for yourself and be comfortable in confrontation with the goal of amicable resolution in mind-a lesson my son learned today that made him stand a little taller and walk with a little more swagger.