Thursday, November 4, 2010

Life is its Own Reward

After school yesterday I took the girls to Stew's. We had a grand old time and in addition to getting each girl a sample of gelato, we bought some items for dinner. When we got home, LP decided she wanted to be my helper as we brought stuff into the house.

"Mommy? Look what a good helper I am," she said with my pocketbook dangling from her arm. She then proceeded to climb into the back of the car to help me get the grocery bags and several cases of soda out.

"[AK]! can you be a good helper for Mommy and take her pocketbook so I can help with the groceries?"

AK ignored her and I took my purse back and carried it and two cases of soda into the house.

When I returned, LP had punched out the carrying handles on the remaining cases of soda to help me carry them. I grabbed them and she started to make her way out of the car.

"Mommy? Can I have money? For being a good helper?"

"Umm...no. You should just be a good helper because it is the right thing to do, not because you want money. Who told you about money for helping?"

This time LP ignored me and hopped out of the car and grabbed the case of soda I had put down so I could close the tailgate. She actually carried it about three feet - not bad for a four year old.

When we got in the house she asked for other ideas on how she could help. She proceeded to help with dinner, garbage collection and clean up. She then recounted for the Hoos all of the ways that she had helped - and asked him for money. She got a treat from her trick-or-treat bag instead; we were kind of hoping we had a few more years until we had to start paying allowance!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She's my reward! Besides being smart, she's beautiful, thoughtful
and charming! Pay the kid! GG

Adam said...

Sounds like they are taking lessons from their California cousins. There have been times that they ask to do chores for money. Luckily, they haven't learned that a dollar is better than a few pennies!