mama mondays: of salesmen and slow-downs

  

Yesterday, I bought a teddy bear for a dollar. It was on top of a shoe box my 5-year-old had been hauling around with the words “Stuff for Sale” on the outside. You see, he’s decided he needs money, and in order to get money, he needed a job. So he’s appointed himself salesman and fashioned this little portable store that includes assorted items inside of it. Everything from small notebooks and pens and tape to…teddy bears, apparently. And what this really amounts to for all of us is buying items we already own. It’s a little like re-gifting, only it’s re-purchasing — buying things once, then a second time. Makes a lot of sense, right?

I’d heard him in the other room, trying to sell his wares, only to be turned down time and again. By the time he reached me, my heart was already melting.

“Mom, no one will buy anything from my store,” he said glumly as he approached me in my bedroom. I was curled up near the edge of the bed, trying to catch a few zzs in between running from basketball tournament to a parent meeting to a musical event downtown. I don’t usually have cash at the ready but happened to have a few bucks in my pocket that day.

“Well, how much is this teddy bear?” I said, lifting the orange stuffed animal from the top.

“It’s on sale — one dollar only,” he said.

“Well, I’ll buy it then. Here you go!”

A moment later, he’d trotted off, and I’d collected my goods and now had my arm around my new stuffed buddy.

Not long after, he reappeared. “Uh, Mom, I guess I made a mistake. It was supposed to be TWO dollars, not one.”

Uh-oh. What kind of precedent would I be setting if I were to magically fork over another dollar? In no time, I’d be paying $50 for a roll of Scotch tape I’d bought for $2.97 at Target the week before.

“Oh bummer. Sorry bud,” I said, not acknowledging the second dollar in my pocket, nor the fact that I was paying for things we already owned. I guess I wanted to teach him a little lesson while not taking away his enthusiasm for his entrepreneurial venture.

So I’m a dollar poorer today, but at least I’ll go to bed tonight with a soft place to rest my arm.

On another subject, I’m excited for this week’s writing post. I’ll be featuring a guest I’m fairly certain you’ll enjoy as much as I do.

Meantime, I need to mention the necessity of slowing down a bit here in the next month or so while I complete a project that needs more than the usual amount of my attention. My plan is to cut down to one or two posts a week, starting this week. I’ll look forward to returning more full time once I’ve met my deadline, and possibly sharing more about my project then as well.

With that, peace be with you all!
PGM

Q4U: What fun thing did you spend your cash on this weekend?