Kid Night
Our niece (7) and nephew (10) (Shrike's sister's kiddos) are spending the night, so I'll have to make this quick.
They've not been in bed long (oops - bad aunts!) and we should be getting there soon, ourselves.
We had a good evening with them, if a late one.
I picked them up on my way home from work, we came home and got Shrike and went to dinner.
We ate the newest restaurant in town, one of the "fifteen pieces of flair" genre.
On a Friday night. What the hell were we thinking?
It was packed, but actually turned out to be not so bad. The wait actually wasn't as long as we feared it might be, and the kids were great.
A couple of bucks for the motorcycle video game (It's a BUCK for ONE GAME! What the hell is THAT about?) occupied them for a while.
At that point, I told them other people needed a turn, and we were going to sit and wait for our table.
Luckily, they called us about then, because I wasn't real sure how that would go over.
Dinner went well, and they even turned down our offer of ice cream afterward (what the hell?).
We were headed home, when I realized that we needed to buy a gift for her cousin's new baby (we're going to see them on Sunday!).
So, we bribed offered to let the kids each pick out a small ($5) prize if we could go to Target (next door to the restaurant) and they'd be cooperative while we picked out an outfit for Baby R.
She was down with that, but of course, he thinks "baby stuff is booorrrring!"
But prizes are cool, so off we went to Target.
They were really good while we were there, and thank you, LadyKay, for the "give them a small amount of money to spend and that's that" idea.
Shrike actually said, "I'm going to use LK's strategy. . . . "
When her kids were small, she gave them each a buck or two to do with as they wished at the grocery store. Any time they asked for something, the answer was, "Is that what you want to spend your money on?"
Sometimes they chose the kind of stuff you'd expect a kid to choose, other times something perfectly nutritious that just didn't happen to be on the list that week.
(Correct me if I'm mis-remembering.)
But, I digress . . . .
They saw tons of stuff that they wanted, of course, but were content to "keep it in mind for Christmas" if it was more than a five-spot. So, that worked quite well.
He ended up with a $4.99 shark, and she got two $1.99 paddle balls.
("One for me and one for Aunt Shrike, so we can have a paddle ball contest.")
(We spotted them the sales tax.)
By the time we were done there, everyone was finally ready for ice cream, so we picked some up and headed home.
When we got here, there were messages on the answering machine from their mom and their dad, each calling to tell them goodnight. Oops.
I declared 9:30 to be bedtime, and I think we finally headed them that direction a bit after ten, and tucked the second one in around eleven.
We're really going to have to work on that.
Good job Aunties! Yes, that giving them money things was one of my more genius parenting ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe concept was that I gave them each $2.00 for "helping me shop." This was ten plus years ago, so it would probably take more now. The reason that it was two, not one, was that for $1.00 all they could get was candy and I didn't want to encourage that.
They could spend the money on anything they wanted. (With the understanding that it would be something that was acceptable to our various family rules.) As Whozat said, when ever they asked for something, I simply said, "Is that what you want to spend your money on?" as opposed to yes or no.
It ended up saving me money because I found I was less likely to give into various things that might be okay, but did not happen to be on the list that day. (Apple juice, etc.)
They most often bought cheapy toys, sometimes snacks and different other things. Sometimes though they used it to buy really great things and learned a lot in doing it.
My favorite was one day they decided that they wanted some fresh cherries, but they didn't want to spend all their money on them. They decided together (without my imput at all) to each put in 50 cents and buy $1.00 worth of cherries to share, so they would each have $1.50 left. They carefully weighed the cherries and calculated the amounts. They were elementary school age at the time.
As to the "helping me shop" part, as soon as they could read at all, I made them each a small grocery list of things that I thought that they could handle finding or choosing. This occupied them and also taught them how to shop. It wasn't too many years before I could just divide the list three ways went we went to the store and when I hurt my back when they were 11 and 14 I was able to just send them into the store with a list and they could do a full shopping while I waited in the car.
What started out as just a method of trying to keep two hyperactive children from driving me crazy in the store worked out very well indeed.
BTW, what is the "fifteen pieces of flair" genre?
ReplyDeleteLK - Thanks for more fully explaining that. I don't know that I'd ever heard the story about the cherries, that's great!
ReplyDeleteI told Shrike about your system years ago, and we decided that we'll use it when the time comes.
Of course, $5 is more than we'd give our kid for a regular grocery trip, but last night was different.
On the other hand, there's a new Giant (a chain of groceries around here) not too far from our house, and although we've not been to it yet, the one across town has a drop-in baby sitting service!
I certainly wouldn't drop off a two year old, but by the time they're too big to contain in the cart, it might be a handy-dandy feature.
The "flair" reference comes from the movie "Office Space."
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
Pieces of Flair — refers to the mass quantities of buttons and pins Joanna is required to wear while working at the fictional Friday’s-esque restaurant "Chotchkie's", as in the title of the 2005 "Special Edition, with Flair" DVD release.
Thus, the restaurant we went to (Reb Robin) is one that's similar to TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for more fully explaining that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was kinda starting to think I might need my own blog to get it said, lol.
$5 is more than we'd give our kid for a regular grocery trip, but last night was different.
Yeah, of course, 'cause now you are the spoilin' aunties. Like I told you many years ago, someday you will have your own kids and they won't like you near as much, 'cause you won't be nearly as nice to them. :D
drop-in baby sitting service
Cool!
Pieces of Flair
Ah, okay, I get it. I have seen ads for Red Robin on TV, but we don't have one.
No babysitting at the new Giant and they can only use it between the ages of 3 (and potty trained) and 9. If your kids will go in, great. Mine, on the other hand, evidently like being with me so much that they want to shop with me. Ahhh joy.
ReplyDeleteI should try the $2 trick though. Sounds like a good idea.
Bummer about the new Giant. I figured they'd have everything.
ReplyDelete