It's always risky to take a shower while the children are loose...unsupervised. I walked out of the bathroom the other morning to be met by one three-year-old in her underwear wielding a hammer and a badminton racket while the other three-year-old was covered from fingertip to forehead in Smokey the Bear stamps.
I gave them the only logical response in that moment, "Out of my room, please." And locked the door.
After a five minute pause, I reentered their world to learn that the tennis racket and hammer were for destroying monsters. Naturally. The stamps? She just wanted them. The big brothers? They made their exit as soon as they heard me coming.
Kids are infinitely unpredictable.
The boys are treasure hunters as of late. Fischer's prize: rocks. He is confident he will discover gold, but in the meantime, pretty rocks are a close second. He found some real gems the other day...well, not real gems, just colorful rocks that he cleaned up. He negotiated with his brother on their worth. Sawyer confidently told him he would pay a thousand for the largest one, although Fischer felt it was probably worth substantially less. It's hard to argue with nine-year-old confidence when you're seven.
Turns out, Fischer is a salesman. After he cleaned up his cache, he met up with a neighbor friend who was in the market for a nice Christmas gift for his mom. Fischer showed him his precious stones and gave an account of their supposed market value, "they are worth thousands." But this was a good friend, so he was willing to make a deal. For the low, low cost of five dollars, he'd part with the best and brightest of his collection. His friend, knowing to take advantage of a steal like that, quickly emptied his piggybank and returned with a ten dollar bill. Seeing as he didn't have change, Fischer didn't some quick thinking, made a couple of calculations and determined he could actually part with two of his best rocks for $10. They made the exchange, both very happy with their end of the bargain. Fischer tossed the rest of the rocks over the friend's fence just in case he needed a couple more later and ran home to tell me about his generous exchange. Meanwhile, his friend explained to his father how he had made a purchase of precious rocks worth thousands, for just $10, and excitedly explained that they were for his mom for Christmas.
To the dad's credit, he didn't immediately call me.
I gently told Fischer not to make any more sales without first clearing it with Ross or myself. After, having him assure me he would not, I texted the friend's family, apologized for my son selling their son our yard debris, and we came up with a plan to return the $10 without diminishing the generosity of the gift to his mom. It was a bit of a dance. In the end, it all worked out, and hopefully we all learned a lesson about good commerce, prudent sales, fact checking, something!
...This kind of stuff never came up in parenting classes.
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