Persuasion

This weekend Ethan decided he wanted to spend the money in his wallet on an Indiana Jones figure.

We stalled for a while, pointing out to him the virtues of saving and that his wallet would be empty if he bought the toy. He pointed out that this toy was the purpose of his saving.

We tried to pose it as a "very expensive" item that perhaps his funds would not cover. He got online and found the toy on the Indiana Jones website so we could verify the price.

We suggested that he could get by with his existing toys. He assured us that since he is Indiana Jones, it is important that he have this particular toy with a golden skull and a booby trap with large spikes so he could really act out his movies for us.

After a bit, Ethan came to me and said "Mom, do you think that maybe you and me and my money and your money could go to Toys R Us?" I said "My money's not going to Toys R Us."

We counted out his money, and sure enough with the $3 gift card that Toys R Us sends at birthday time, he had enough, and he got a great math and money counting workout in the process.

Eventually, I needed to go to Hy-Vee and told him if he was very good during that and we got him a haircut, we would then go get the toy. Ethan said "Mom, I'm gonna be so good you won't even believe it." "Great", I said. A pause, then "Well, I'll probably just be like normal, regular good kid good, will that be all right?".

So off we went to Hy-Vee, where Ethan was very good and undemanding, but kept saying "Oh, I like those but I'm not gonna ask for them", "See, Mom, aren't I being good?", "Mom, do you think I'm gonna earn that toy?", "Mom, I'm seeing all these things I like to eat but I'm not asking for them because I want to earn that toy", you get the idea.

Next to the hair cutters, where a guy we hadn't had before took Ethan's cranium in one hand while clipper cutting the entire thing with the other. Yikes! At least he used a slightly longer guard on the top. Hoping it grows out a bit before picture day.

Finally, we stopped at Toys R Us, which was thankfully not busy. We approached the checkout and Ethan dumped out his one dollar bill and heap of coins and proceeded to count out the whole bit. I think he had 17 cents left, but the Indiana Jones reenactments have been spectacular!