A Teaching Moment

We haven’t had a proper snowsuit for Declan throughout all this snow, so yesterday we went on a mission to get him one. As you can imagine, the pickings were slim, and we finally ended up finding one at a ski/snowboard clothing store. And it was $100. I repeat. One hundred dollars. About 4 times what I would normally pay for such a thing for him. In fact, that’s probably twice what I would pay for myself and I won’t outgrow the damn thing in 4 months. But we were desperate. And Declan really did look adorable in the thing.

So, I hunkered down on the balls of my feet next him, thinking – “OK, here is a place where we could talk about the value of money!” Because, while we certainly aren’t rich – that kid never wants for anything. I said, “Listen, Dex. We are going to buy this snowsuit (he starts jumping up and down)… but listen, listen… It is very expensive. It is way out of our budget. So we are going to look at one more store and if they have a cheaper suit that fits you, we will buy it and have to return this one. Because we have to be careful to not spend too much money. It is not good to go over our budget.” (Meanwhile Bryan is snickering because it’s not like we really even follow that rule all that much ourselves… Ah well, it’s the thought that counts, right?). And then I said to Declan, “Do you understand how expensive this snowsuit is? It is $100.” And his eyes got HUGE. Like REALLY huge. His JAW DROPPED. All the way to his CHEST.

All of a sudden, I envision myself on the bow of the Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio curled up behind me… “I AM THE PARENTING QUEEN OF THE WORLD!! HE TOTALLY GETS IT! HE UNDERSTANDS THE VALUE OF MONEY!!! I TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY KICK ASS!!!”

And then Declan says, “Mama! ONE HUNDRED is my most FAVORITE number!”

Iceberg, dead ahead.

Those of you who watch Blue’s Clues will understand the source of my pain.