Sadly,
trips to the toy store with Ittybit rarely end in purchases these
days. There's no begging, no bartering, no badgering for inventory.
Playthings have become passe.
Barbies
are bundled (all of them naked with horror-show hair) under her bed.
Littlest Pet Shops are neatly crated in her closet, categorized by
creature. Calico Critters have been left to forage for themselves in
the old abandoned doll house.
Over
the summer (and practically overnight) Ittybit has moved from the
dark ages of intrinsically childish things into the mezmerizing
bluish-white light of their technological replacement.
Yes,
yes. She wants an iPad.
And
she's discovered (through the experience of a more tech-savvy friend)
a way to get one: If she earns the money for half of the cost, her
parents will most likely see the vast benefits of paying for the
other half.
She
gets her iPad and we get a kid who takes initiative and follows
through.
Not
a bad deal, right?
Certainly
not considering Ittybit already has $160 in savings from birthday
presents, Tooth Fairy visits and two summers' worth of lemonade stand
sales.
Of
course her next birthday is still months away, and with precious few
wiggly teeth left, she sees the conundrum: What's a girl of eight to
do to earn money?
"Laundry,"
I suggested.
Her
eyes lit up.
"Really?
For money?"
"Sure,
if you do our laundry, too."
"How
much will you pay me?"
"Twenty-five
cents to wash and dry and fifty cents to fold and put away each
load."
"That's
seventy-five cents a load."
It
seemed the perfect amount: large enough to attract her as an
employee; small enough to keep the actual iPad purchase from
happening before Christmas; and odd enough that she will have to
brush up on her math skills keeping track. ... Which will be
my bonus as I entrust the delicates and shrinkables to the
novice, who will, no doubt, need hours of in-house training services
to ensure our whites aren't tinted with pink and our floors aren't
flooded with soap suds.
Surprisingly,
the experiment has gone well.
Not
only has she proven a competent and enthusiastic laundress, but she's
also been quite meticulous in her accounting.
"I
did three loads of laundry ... That's $2.25 ... plus another $.50 for
the laundry
YOU
left in the dryer that I
folded and put away ... so that's $2.75."
Perhaps
a little too meticulous.
"Two-dollars
and seventy-five cents ...hmmm ... at this rate it will take me 20
weeks to earn enough money for the iPad."
I
see her mind churning.
"I
can clean my room. ...
"I
can clean YOUR room ...
"I
can do dishes ...
"I
will clean all the bathrooms ...
I
have a better idea. ... "Just clean YOUR
room
and put all the toys you no longer play with in a box for the
town-wide yard sale. The money you make selling things you don't want
can pay for things you do want."
The
look on her face told me her entrepreneurial skills may not be quite
up to that task just yet. But of course, what she says shows her
entrepreneurial skills have already surpassed mine:
"I
have a better idea. You sell your old stuff and I'll sell lemonade.
The profit margin is better."
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