Book Boy’s school is having their annual book fair this week. I was feeling fairly generous – after all, it is the book fair – and gave BB $20 to spend. He was excited to buy two graphic novels (Hulk and Iron Man, I think) and wanted to take his wallet today. I tried to talk him into waiting until the bookstore has 40% off “employee discount days” in a couple of weeks, since the book fair offers no discount, but he insisted. I figured it was his money, so that was OK with me.
Between the money he had left from the $20 I gave him $5) and the money he had in his wallet, he had about $30 to spend at the book fair. What did he buy, you ask?
- One book, which I haven’t actually seen yet (I went to a sneak preview movie tonight and didn’t see BB)
- A fold-up camoflage pen
- Another pen of some sort
- A pack of erasers in the shape of “lunchables”
- A nose-shaped pencil sharpener. And yes, you put the pencil in the “nostrils” to sharpen it.
- Hopefully something else that I haven’t seen or heard about yet.
I think that perhaps next time he will have a more modest book fair budget, and we will wait to spend the money at the bookstore! (I’m even willing to take him after school sometime the week of the book fair.)
What do you do when your kids waste their money on junk? Do you let them learn their lesson of “now I have a bunch of junk and no money left?” Do you try to teach them a lesson about spending their money wisely? Or do you just figure it’s their money, they can spend it however they want to (within reason)?
Aw, I remember those times well. I used to teach the 5th grade and I would always see my students be excited by everything other than books at the book fair. I have no advice for you, but I wanted to let you know that you’re not alone.
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Gotta love the nose shaped pencil sharpener line. Thanks for the laugh this morning.
I don’t have any advice either. The few times I have let Ashley use her own money she has purchased crap as well. Whenever they have a book fair or the book order, she begs for a book that comes packaged with a bunch of other trinkets.
Thank goodness Morgan can’t read yet
I think BB is smarter than you think. He knows he can buy whatever crap he wants at the book fair and be pretty confident that he’ll still get some stuff during “employee discount days”.
He’s fully aware that BookMama has this mental problem with saying “no” to anything that involves books or reading. For example, he never asks if he can stay up late and play with his Star Wars guys anymore, because that would be met with opposition. However, if he asks if he can stay up and read, BookMama will put her foot down with a firm “O.k., but your light needs to be out sometime before dawn.”
My nephew, who is 9, unfortunately has inherited my packrat tendencies and doesn’t consider anything crap, whether he buys it or not. There recently was an unfortunate incident when he was upset about throwing away half of a wooden yoyo.
Our PTO has some of the non-book junk available at book fair, but elects to keep some of it out of site and unavailable for this very reason–parents send kids to school to buy books, and it isn’t books that come home.
That being said, I’ve handled book order and book fair by offering $3 and the kid pays the rest, for anything that costs more. One boy is a skinflint like his mother and prefers to spend nothing, rather than dip into his own funds. The other one often chooses to spend $10 of his own money, and will buy questionable things that break easily. But, he will steadfastly maintain that he was pleased with how he used his money. Okay.
P.S. Before you think I’m completely awful, there are generally a few good classics for $.99 in the book orders the boys bring home, plus a couple interesting books for $2.99 or $3.99, so I’m not horribly out of line only offering $3…although I’m thinking of upping it to $4.
Jolene – BB has actually come up with a good solution for the book orders. When we get the order forms, I’ll let him buy $10 worth of stuff. A couple months ago, he said “I’ll just circle some things I’d like, and you can pick which ones to get me.” It works really well – he gets a nice surprise when the books arrive but knows that it will be something he wants. (And I assume that if there was something he absolutely wanted, he’d let me know.) And best of all – I get to avoid picking the junk!
Tim – Yeah, yeah, whatever. It’s not like we’re going to Borders tomorrow or anything. Oh wait … And if BB would just “sneak read” instead of asking, that wouldn’t even be an issue cause I could pretend I didn’t know. (Just like my parents before me did.
) It’s when he asks that I’m forced to give him a “lights out” time.
Gal – I have the same pack-rat tendencies (but I’ll need it someday! Really! I can’t throw it out!) and it’s worst when it comes to books.
Vlnvla – I like your system too. I can’t believe that you’d call yourself a skinflint, though.
(Just kidding, of course I believe it.) I’m guessing that it’s the older one who’s the skinflint – am I right?
SO RIGHT
I’ve run books fairs like that and the kids do love the junk. But at least the money earned goes to the school and they can use it to buy more books for all of the kids!