Pride and laughter rolled into one package

This morning Orion came to me and very politely asked if I could drive him down to GameStop so he could buy the newest Pokemon game for Nintendo DS. It's called Pokemon Platinum Edition and it's NOT CHEAP! I asked him if he had enough money and he said he wasn't sure how much it was but maybe we could look it up online and find out first. We saw it online at Toys R Us, Best Buy and of course GameStop for $34.99. He immediately went to his ATM bank and checked his balance, he had $38.00 saved up. So we got in the car and headed to GameStop since it's the closest. We got there and he found it on the main display and patiently waited in line to check out and when it was finally his turn he put it on the counter and reaches into his pocket for what I thought was a bunch of dollar bills with maybe a five in there as well...he had $18.00 in bills (1 five and the rest singles) and then he pulls out this little bucket marked "Quarters" The rest of his money as all quarters! He carefully counted and stacked them in groups of $5.00 and the look on that cashiers face was priceless! My boy was so proud of himself though, he was glowing! After tax was added the game came to $36.74 so Orion paid that man with $18.75 in quarters, $13.00 in singles and 1 five dollar bill! THEN he tells the guy "Thanks, you can keep the change!" OMG I just about died laughing! Gotta love kids, they really know how to make your day!

I was so proud of him though, he only gets $5.00 a week in allowance and from that I deduct money for the use of bad words and inappropriate noises. Now that may sound wierd to some people, but money talks with this kid and since I have started charging him 50 cents for everytime he says a "bad" word (words like : Crap, hell, damn, whatever (with that nasty tone) , fine (also with that nasty tone) you get the picture I'm sure) Well ever since I started charging money he has dropped those words from his vocabulary. I haven't heard "WHATEVER Mom" in weeks thanks to him losing $3.00 one week from his allowance! Over the course of the last month and a half he has lost on average $2.50 a week...that's half his allowance! This week I have only heard 1 bad word "Stupid" I know a lot of 8 year olds say it but I don't like it and it will leave his vocabulary one way or another! Instead of time-outs or soap in the mouth I use money and IT WORKS! So here's why I'm so proud of him....instead of spending his little bit of money on candy or junk he saved and saved and saved for months to buy this one game. He volunteered to do "yucky jobs" like scooping the cat box for extra money and he tries to find ways to make more money by doing odd jobs that he KNOWS I hate doing.....for instance I HATE putting away laundry, I'll wash it, I'll dry it (ok I know the machines do all that but I do have to sort it all and bend over to put it into the dryer from the washer) but I do hate putting it away. So Orion asked if I would pay him 50 cents to put away the laundry including the worst part....sorting and matching the socks! WOOHOO God has mercy and gave me a child who will do my laundry for me!!!!! YEEEHAW! Granted now whenever he does an additional chore above and beyond his everyday chores he expect payment lol BUT he'll take a quarter and be happy with that. Apparently those quarters really add up!