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

I Should Have Known, But I Didn't or It's Been a Year

I began this blog one year ago this month.  This is my 31st post.  That puts me at exactly 2.4 posts per month.  Not a world's record, but a personal best.  Up from the zippo I had before.  I started it so that my children would have some record of their family's life.  I haven't been very good at journal keeping in the past.  I have been hit or miss at best.  What I hadn't anticipated was how much I have enjoyed writing and reading this blog.  I have reread my posts, some of them several times.  They have made me laugh, cry and reminisce about my life.  I like to write, so it should not have been such a surprise.  But for some reason or other I didn't realize how much I would benefit from it.  Maybe next year I will average a 3 or even 4 posts each month.  I have ideas and notable life events that I could write about, but we shall see.

Yesterday we had a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad" morning that ended with a Christlike Kindness

Last Saturday morning SHOULD have been an ordinary Saturday morning.  The children have "Saturday chores" that they are required to do before they move on with their day.  There are a few exceptions.  This morning Spencer had an exception because his scout troop led by Destry went on a rock climbing expedition.  It was a gorgeous day!  They had a great time thanks to Destry's former missionary companion and friend, Dallin Ward, who shared his talents and expertise with the group.  Spencer was the star as I was told.   For those of us who stayed behind, it should have been chore time after they left.  They were all playing together nicely for a while and I just let them.  It is fun to see them getting along and playing well.  At around 10:00 I reminded them  to get get started because Emma had her first basketball game of the season and Estelle had a birthday party that both started at 1:00.  That should have been no problem. ...

It Has Only Taken Her 9 Years, but Estelle Finally Sleeps All Night Long In Her Own Bed: She Can Do Hard Things!

Estelle will turn the big 9 on May 4th. She has only slept through the night in her own bed a few times each year for her entire life until about two months ago. After spending a lot of energy worrying and bribing and consequencing I finally surrendered and figured that she would sleep through the night whenever she was ready. I put a pillow and blanket on my bedroom floor and told her to just lay herself down there. That worked for a couple of years until she decided a year ago that she would get in bed with Emma instead. While that did not bother me at all, Emma was not too fond of that arrangement. After a fair amount of understandable crankiness from Emma, Estelle was informed that she either needed to remain in her own bed or sleep on someone's floor. She has been more partial to Emma's floor lately, but after having slept in a bed all night she would rather do that. A few months before she turned seven I thought I had the sure thing for motivating her. Destry had put i...