Today I ran to the mall to see if I could find bedding for the new bed. Allison was the only offspring that cared to join me. We had a lovely afternoon, including her trying on clothes (and me purchasing an outfit for her), and lots of misc shopping. We saw the cutest little hermit crab, and the ugliest HUGE hermit crab. We did not find my bedding…alas, tomorrow is another day.

In our first store, Allison was admiring the earrings, and wondering if you had to pierce your ears before you could wear an earring. I told her about the joys of clip-on earrings and the rest of the day became somewhat of a quest to find clip-ons suitable for a young girl to wear. Finally at the end of our day, we found some. $6.00 each at Claire’s. Now back up a little. A few weeks ago, I started giving the girls an allowance. $1 for each year they’ve been with us, and they must save 50%. As soon as she started getting an allowance, Allison decided to save for a video game. A Sonic game. Not the new Sonic heros…too pricey, would take too long to save for it, but an older Sonic game, costing $20. She was almost there with $14 burning a hole in her purse. Then she finds the earrings. She wanted them SO bad, but wasn’t sure if she wanted to delay getting Sonic just so she could purchase the earrings. We spent probably 15-20 minutes at Claire’s with her debating this in her mind. Finally, she just couldn’t take the dilemma a minute longer and burst into tears. Man, I wanted to buy her those earrings so bad, so she could save her money for Sonic, but then I am sorta defeating the whole purpose of giving her an allowance…to teach her to save and to delay gratification. But she was SO torn. I told her to think about what would make her happy. If she bought the earrings now, would she regret it? Would she feel sad and upset that she didn’t hold onto her money? Or if we left the store without the earrings, would she be upset that she didn’t purchase them? She replied that no matter what she did, she was going to feel sad. I recommended we go home and think about it for a day or so, and see if she still wanted the earrings and we come back for them. She wasn’t sure if that would work either. We just stood there with tears streaming down her face as she learned a lesson in life….and finally she decided. The earrings. She was going to buy the earrings, and then, with her $7.50 change, and her allowance she gets tomorrow, she is going to search ebay for a cheaper sonic game, and if she can’t find one, she is still going to be happy with her earrings. And she walked up to the counter, threw a wad of bills down, dried her tears, and proudly left the store with her new purchase firmly clutched in her tear-dampened fist. And never looked back. I have yet to hear a word of regret. That’s my girl.