I love that he gave his Dad those pennies.

Reminds me of a time I was visiting my kids, and had my 8-year-old granddaughter with me when I stopped to pick up something from the grocery store. When Ashton spotted the Twinkies, strategically placed at kids’ eye level at the checkstand, she wanted to buy them with her birthday money. Doubting that mom would approve, I nixed the idea, until she explained. Her teacher had shared a few weeks previously that had grown up poor, and had scrounged in the garbage after school one day and found the one treat she had always craved and never had – a package of Twinkies. Ashton felt sad that her teacher had been Twinkie-deprived as a kid, and wanted to buy her some Twinkies, just because – and Grandma let her, ready to explain all to Mom. Mom just laughed and said that what Ashton didn’t realize was that her teacher was now a health-food junkie, and probably wouldn’t even eat the Twinkies – but Mom recognized her generous heart, and didn’t say anything to spoil it. And of course, neither did the teacher. I think my kids and you would probably see eye-to-eye on a lot of child rearing issues. Seems like you are both doing a pretty good job!

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Sean’s Towel Folding Inc. has worked out well for us. He’s learned how to fold towels properly (i.e., my way) and I’ve learned to not be so uptight if the towels are not folded perfectly symmetrical. But I only pay him for the towels that I find acceptable. Sometimes he has to go back and fix his work to keep the customer happy — no one wants to pay for shoddy work. I pay him a penny a towel/wash cloth/dish towel and two cents for a beach towel. I recently added in socks, also a penny a pair. He’s also practicing math since he has to figure out how much he has earned and request payment. He takes great pride in his work and it makes laundry a lot more fun!