Will has been working a lot. His regular job has stressful bursts and he’s been in one lately. On top of that he is approaching a big deadline on a side project. The extra money is helpful, of course, but …
I have been working a lot too. August 8th marks the start of our official home school year. I snatch any spare moment for planning and preparing. On top of that our coop has been busy getting ready for the year as well and there have been extra out of the house meetings for that.
To sum up: Lots of work has been happening. Little family fun time is happening. Extra money is available.
Tonight there was lull and having not had such a lull for so long we were somewhat at a loss as to what to do with it. Will said, “I want to celebrate the fact that we totally hit our monthly budget goal for the side project. I want to do something that is so awesome everyone is excited about doing it and when we come back home I want to hear the kids say, ‘THAT WAS AWESOME!’”
So we did something completely random and un-characteristic for us. We loaded up the kids, drove to Target, pulled a $100 from the ATM and handed it to the children. Forty each for the Bigs and $20 for the Littles to share. Then we set some simple ground rules.
~ You can buy an item (or combination of items) that is age appropriate and in this store.
~ You cannot save any of the money. Cash not spent returns to Dad.
~ Be sure to include tax.
~ Arguments of any sort will cost you $1/incident.
~ Have fun!
Then we followed our kids around the store. It was so much fun to watch them!
Sister went straight for the Wii games but not finding one she liked opted instead for Creationary and a glow stick from the camping department.
Brother also ended up with Legos (no surprise there) but he chose to split his allotment between a number of small sets and a package of Nerf pistols.
At various points Dora had a super bouncy ball, a hula hoop, a bucket of modeling clay and a Cars themed lunch bag. She spend a good deal of time perusing the baby doll aisle but in the end all was trumped by a bag of Smarties and a plastic sandwich container with a rainbow on the cover.
Not to be left out Baby Z snagged a soccer ball from the sports department. In case you’re wondering, I don’t know why an 8 month old needs a soccer ball but I do know he wouldn’t let it go in the store and that it elicited squeals of delight on the way home.
Maybe going shopping is a regular activity for your family, if so you will probably find this post a little strange, but we hardly ever go to the store without a list. (In fact, we hardly every go to the store at all. I order my groceries for pickup at the local market and just about everything else I order online when children are asleep, the house is quiet and I can finally hear myself think.) Typically we are buying some very practical item. Typically, we are on a budget and typically, there is some greater agenda to consider. How freeing to have a night with none of these restraints.
And when we got home the kids said, “THAT WAS AWESOME!”
