Says my wise husband to my children who are in trouble. "Knowledge costs something but a parents wisdom is free."
This is in reference to the fact that after telling my children 1,386, 798, 452 times NOT to move the glass lizard tank they did. This time they decided to drop it on the Wii Fit platform shattering it into a million pieces. Needless to say we had a huge talk about whether we should keep the lizards as they now had no home and the boys had no money to buy a new one. Finally, Dave told them that he would buy some of their possessions from them so they could earn money for a tank. Well KU brought down his most precious possessions. A picture of him, his artwork, his Statue of Liberty, favorite books, etc. Everything that was near and dear to his heart. KA on the other hand brought down a gum WRAPPER...not even the gum to go with it. After about 5 times upstairs "looking" for things to sell to dad and finding "NOTHING" he could bear to part with; Dad told him to bring down his compendium of THomas The Tank Engine. Well KA fought this all the way. When that didn't work he then tried to control the outcome to his satisfaction.
"Okay, you can have the book," he tells Dave "Provided that I can read it whenever I want."
"No dice, Buddy, It's all or nothing. If it is nothing we let the lizards go."
After much grumbling the book becomes Dave's.
Later that evening we find the book being used as a pillow.
Sometimes giving up is harder than giving in. And sometimes giving in is exhausting.