My Real Life

For Easter, my parents gave each of the monkeys a $10 gift card to a local dollar-type store, $5 Below.

My kids love this store.

It’s full of crappy stuff that kids love.

If you look carefully, you can sometimes find a gem or two, but for the most part, you can guarantee that what you leave with will be broken in a week’s time.

Anyway, the forecast called for thunderstorms today, and the kids decided they didn’t want to risk the pool.

So, we decided to head to $5 Below so the kids could use their gift cards.

They got their wallets in order before we left.

Monkey Girl had a few extra dollars in her wallet, plus her $10 gift card, plus a $5 gift card she had received from her Girl Scout leaders at their pool party.

Monkey in the Middle had his $10 gift card, plus $2 cash that he (amazingly) hadn’t already spent from money he had earned doing his chores.

Baby Monkey had his $10 gift card from Easter.

Monkey in the Middle immediately said “Hey, Baby Monkey…I’ll give you one of my dollars so we both have $11.”

Baby Monkey was appropriately grateful and I was a proud Mama.

Off to the store we went, and after 45 minutes, we finally walked out.

What took so long was that they were really very thoughtful about what they wanted to buy.

Monkey in the Middle, in particular.

We got in and out of the checkout line at least four times as he changed his mind about what to get.

After the third time, I began to realize that the reason he was changing his mind so often was because the money was his.

We’ve stopped in to that store a few times, here and there, and I’ve offered to get everyone one thing, and they pick quickly and leave with garbage.

Yet, today, the monkeys were spending their own money and they wanted to make good choices and get the best items for their cash.

So, when we finally left, Monkey Girl had 2 hot pink hair extensions for her hair (she’s been eyeing these for quite some time), an electronic pet called a Meeba, and a Super Secret Spy kit.  I haven’t seen her since we got home, as she’s been in her room fingerprinting things.

Baby Monkey had a robot –arm-grabber-thingy that he’s been coveting, a Batman movie, and 3 SpiderMan action figures.

And, Monkey in the Middle left with a Giants toy truck that has doors that open and close, a foam bat extension for the Wii remote for the baseball game, and a fancy race car.

With the exception of the hair extensions and the robot-arm-grabber-thingy, I’d hesitate to call any of it crap, and I was proud to see them really agonize over choosing just the right thing.

There is power in ownership, even when it’s just the ownership of the money that is being used to buy something.

Good lesson for my family and me.