Friday, August 29, 2014
Does this fall under Love & Logic?
AUGUSTA, GA - Emerson is sitting in my office, cheerfully playing with her iPad, while I finish up a couple of small tasks.
"Mama? Can I have two dollars?" she asks.
"Nope."
"Ugh! You diddin' even let me tell you why I wan-ned it."
I cock my eyebrow at her. "You are thirsty. You could drink the bottle of water that you know I have in my purse. But you'd rather go downstairs and get an entirely different bottle of water out of the vending machine. It makes you feel like a grown-up, you love machines, and the conveyor belt is hilarious."
Y'all. She made this face, exactly:
"Fine. You're right," she says. "But can I? It's just two dollars."
"Emerson, the 'just two dollar' requests add up to more than just two dollars. Eventually, all the dollars are gone. I'm not made of money," I toss out the phrase that every parent uses and triumphantly shove some papers in a file folder.
"Ohmygosh!" she exclaims. "If you were made of money, I wouldn't even ask you for any! Because then you'd be giving me pieces of your skin! That would be horrible!"
*blink*
"Okay, then." I reach into my purse and pull out $1.25. She squeals and holds out her hand.
"Wait a second. I'm not giving this money to you because you asked," I explain. "I am giving it to you because you thought critically about the sentence I used. That's an important skill."
She prances out the door. With my money. And possibly my dignity.
She is such a genius (which, btw, is polite for "smarty pants"!!!) - I love her!!
ReplyDeleteWhen you assume you're the smartest person in the room you leave yourself open to weakness. Ha.
ReplyDelete