Skip to main content

I'm Glad My 7 Year Old Doesn't Need to be Embarrassed Any More

I'm backing up to Christmas for a moment. My children had a good Christmas. Everyone received the gifts they wanted most. Or so I thought until after we had visited with cousins and showed the spoils with each other. Sarah got everything she had asked for. And by everything I mean everything. And then some. She was happy until she saw that three of her younger cousins received either an iPod or tablet. Estelle got an iPod as well. She asked for one. After that Sarah wished she had an iPod too.

I didn't feel too sorry for her. She is only seven and she had never even once mentioned wanting one. Maybe she thought I would have said, "You're only 7 and you're not getting an iPod." But maybe I wouldn't have. I'm to the point where I don't necessarily want more electronic devices in the hands of my kids, but I don't want any more toys on the shelves and the floor of my house either. So maybe I wouldn't have. Right now I'm not sure what I would have said.

But fast forward to today. I got a new iPhone for my birthday and I still have my old one. It does not have service, but could act as an iPod. Emma has been trying to get her hands on it since December. 

Destry found an iPod for sale with a broken screen for about $20 and a new screen costs as much. Spencer and Destry have learned the ins and outs of replacing broken screens and have the tools to do so. Sarah had some money and we asked her if she wanted to use her money to buy one herself. She did. The one Destry saw initially was sold by the time we discussed her buying one.

Emma had the brilliant idea of Sarah buying her iPod and then she would buy my phone. Destry felt like Emma was getting away with too good of a deal for the price she wanted to pay. We agreed on $80. Still $20 less than what the Sprint store would have given me. Sarah bought the iPod for $50. The reason this transaction didn't happen sooner was because Emma was $10 short and hasn't been interested in doing $10 of extra chores until today. She cleaned out the fridge. Yay! 

After the transactions were complete and the electronic devices were in the hands of their new owners, Sarah proudly exclaimed,"Hooray! Now I don't have to be embarrassed!" 

"What was there to be embarrassed about," I wondered?

"There are kids in my class and my 3 younger cousins who all have an iPod or tablet and I didn't have one." 

Really? She is pretty carefree and while I knew that at Christmastime she felt left out, I had no idea she had been this bothered by not having her own personal electronic device. She only plays one game, "Minion Rush." Very well I might add. She is looking forward to texting her cousins and sending "random texts" to her parents. Other than that, she has little use for it. But at least now she doesn't have to be embarrassed! And I didn't even have to buy it. It's a "win, win." Sweet!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Day He Died

Thirteen years ago today I was at an aquarium in the Gateway Shopping Center in Salt Lake City. I was with my sister-in-law, JuNette; her son Andrew and my three oldest children. Spencer had just turned five the day before, Taylor was three and a half, and Emma was 22 months. The aquarium was new and small, but we enjoyed our time there. After we had been there for some time JuNette handed me her phone and said that Destry had been trying to get a hold of me for quite some time. Destry told me not to worry, but that he and Christine were driving to my childhood home in Springville to check on my dad because no one had heard from him and he hadn't shown up to pick up my mom from the hospital.  My siblings and I had been worried about my mom's welfare because she had had a gastric bypass surgery to help her to loose weight and to improve both her health and her quality of life. The surgery had gone well and she was ready to come home on this day 13 years ago. Oddly, my dad neve

Her Life was Not as Sweet

A couple of years ago at a moment when my mom was expressing her love to her children and grandchildren, she mentioned that her Patriarchal Blessing stated she would live for as long as "life was sweet for her." She told us that while she missed her sweetheart dearly, life was indeed sweet. I thought that was a blessing for her and for us. This past year has been quite difficult for her. Last November she began having pain in her upper back, arms, and shoulders. She visited a pain clinic and received a series of injections providing her with some relief. By Spring her hands and feet were swollen and misshapen and she had difficulty getting her body moving each morning. If she had a morning appointment she would wake up at 4:00 a.m. in order to get her hands moving so she could use them. In the spring her primary care physician suggested she see a rheumatologist.  In the past she has had bad experiences either with rheumatology medications or doctors and I began going to

"Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me"

As a mother stills her child,      Thou canst hush the ocean wild; From August to November of last year, Taylor has had four witnessed and likely two other grand mal seizures; all of them in his sleep. By the time he'd had his sixth the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I had reached the end of my rope. It was terrifying to see him stiffen, shake, foam at the mouth and turn purple for many minutes. This particular seizure was the worst and the longest. We were struggling to get him seen by a neurologist and I had decided to call the paramedics for the fourth time and this time to have him transported to the hospital even if he regained consciousness. He needed to be fast tracked to testing and medication.  Little did I know that that call would take me down a path I never in a million years imagined I would be on.  To summarize what happened after the paramedics arrived, they pushed me out of Taylor's room and refused to give me the time of day. Never mind, he has a complex medical h