The seven year old girl comes into my bedroom with her pink, sequined wallet clutched close to her chest.
She was rambling about needing money.
She was pacing around me saying, that.
Honestly ... I wasn't paying much attention. I heard her, but I couldn't decipher (without delving full force into a conversation) what she was talking about.
She squatted down by my purse and I could hear her rummaging through my coin purse - I turned back to what I was doing.
She left the room.
She returned a short time later, still rambling, "I need more money," this, "Do you have money for me?" that.
"What do you need money for?" I asked.
"I only have $22.00. Do you have the $5.00 you said you would pay me?"
"You were just in my purse - was there $5.00 in my purse?"
"No." She is so distressed. "You only have $10.00."
"Go ask Daddy," I suggest and - off she goes.
She returns a short while later - now with a wad of bills in her hand. "I have all the money," she reports happily, and climbs up on my bed.
"Money for what?" I ask.
"To buy the locks." She is smiling so big.
*blink blink*
I notice the wad of money she is clutching in her hand. "How much money do you have?" I ask.
"I have $29.00." She unfolds her hand and the bills fall out on the bed. "I only need $24.00," she says.
"For what?" I ask again.
"For ... the LOCKS." She gets frustrated with me.
"What are you talking about - what locks?"
She rolls her eyes and sighs loudly. "The locks! I told you I wanted to buy the 3 locks - I need $24.00 to buy the 3 locks."
"Locks?" I ask, bewildered.
"L.O.C.K.S," she says the word loudly and clearly.
"From who - who are you buying L.O.C.K.S from?" I am so confused.
She throws out the name of a girl in her class.
"What kind of locks? She's sell-ing ... locks?" I am desperately still trying to clarify.
"Her mom makes them," she says, clearly not understanding why I am not getting this conversation.
"What do you mean - her mom makes them? She makes ... L.O.C.K.S?"
She throws herself back on my bed, exasperated. "She paints the locks. I want to buy 3 of them. I need $24.00."
"Let me get this straight." I walk over and sit on the bed. "You have a friend at school. Her mom paints L.O.C.K.S. She's selling them for her mom. She asked you to buy some. You want to buy 3 L.O.C.K.S?"
"Y.E.S." She is almost in tears.
"Um ... I don't think so."
On the upside ... This is definitely one of those times where I should have been paying attention from the get-go and I would have saved us both an hours worth of lost time - searching for money - begging for money - scrounging for money - stealing my money - talking about money - counting money - clutching money ... all for the mom to say ... "I don't think so. We don't need L.O.C.K.S. I don't want you spending all your money on L.O.C.K.S. What would we do with all those L.O.C.K.S?" After she cried a bit, and after I concluded that there were big L.O.C.K.S and little L.O.C.K.S and they were different prices and that all of these fabulous L.O.C.K.S are specially painted somehow and adorned in jewels (?????) - I gave in and told her she could start out by buying one of the small ones for $6.00. Let's see the thing and then .... maybe we'll buy more ..... L.O.C.K.S ..... m'kay.
Here's Alexis' $6.00 lock - tee hee
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