You're Not Broke

I made the mistake of taking Franklin and Cole to Community Bakery one afternoon after school on our way home. I thought this would be a very nice treat for the boys - grabbing a couple of the iced-sugar cookies to eat on our way home before we had to start in on "the homework hour." They loved the idea of going to the "baker" (as opposed to bakery) for our cookies (I guess I am not considered a baker when I make the cookies at home). So a few days later they asked if we could go again and being the wonderful mom that I am I checked to see if I had any cash on me and sure enough I did, so we made the trip again.

So now Franklin and Cole think that we should make a stop at the "baker" every afternoon (which we have NOT done so!). I explained that going to the "baker" would be for very special occassions and that we couldn't go everyday. However, that doesn't stop Franklin from asking every day to go to the "baker." Today being no exception. Except that today I didn't go into the "its supposed to be for special occassions" speech. Instead I thought I would go with the "we don't have money" approach. So in trying to tell Franklin that you have to have money to go to the "baker" I explained that today we are "broke" and therefore we can't go to the "baker." With that he said, "raise up your shirt and let me see your tummy!" For the life of me I couldn't figure out where this was going - so he raised my shirt and said, "See mommy, you aren't broke!" So, that one backfired on me, but also brought back another memory when I tried to explain to Susie Q that we couldn't buy something because we were broke.

When Susie Q was around 4 (same age as Franklin) she wanted to toy or something from Walmart. I explain to her we couldn't buy it since it wasn't in our budget which continued to "we don' t have any money" which escalated into "but you have checks" and then I explained that you also had to have money in the bank to writ the checks. So as we stand in the checkout and I pull the check book out to pay for our purchases, my daughter so bravely and loudly stated, "But I thought you said we didn't have any money in the bank!" Yes, my face was red. Yes, I hurriedly checked out and got out of there as fast as I could, knowing that everyone thought she just wrote a "hot" check. (Which I didn't).

I am slowly learning that 4 year olds don't quite understand budgets or money management however much I want them too. So for now, the doctor is out......gluing herself back together!