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May 13, 2005

Fairness and ninjas and princesses, oh my!

Alesia, remembering that it’s Friday the 13th

So I mentioned that it was darling son’s birthday Monday. The problem with birthdays, of course, is that (unless you did the twins or triplets thing) it’s rare that all of your children’s birthdays fall on the same day.
This causes great CONSTERNATION in the non-birthday child.

Today, we finally made it to MINI CAPITALISTS R US in order for Darling Son to spend some of his birthday cash. Princess Daughter wasn’t all that thrilled with the concept.

Here’s how it went:

Princess: It’s not FAIR. My brother is SPOILED.
Me: He is not spoiled; it’s his birthday. You just spent your allowance on two toys today.
Princess: But he has a BILLION dollars.
Me: No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have that much.
Birthday Boy [helpfully]: Yes, I do!! I have A HUNDRED AND THREE DOLLARS!! It’s ALL MINE!!!
Princess [pouting]: It’s NOT FAIR.
Me [reaching for Advil]: But on YOUR birthday, YOU had all the money to buy presents.
Princess: But that was FOREVER ago.
Me: No, it was only three months ago.
Princess: Right. FOREVER.
Me: Let’s discuss temporal relativity.
Navy Guy: She’s five, Alesia.
Me: Oh, yeah. Fine. YOU explain it.
Navy Guy: It’s your brother’s birthday, so we’re just going to give him a chance to spend a little bit of his birthday money. You already have your toys, Okay?
Me: [snickering at his foolishness] Oh, that should work, honey.

Needless to say, Birthday Boy found the perfect Ninja set (just the thing for those Florida weekends), and Princess wound up with a secret present of her own . . .

Here’s the thing. I know on an intellectual level that spoiling my kids is a bad thing and I should make them wax the walls and scrub floors with their toothbrushes or something. But we were so poor when I was a kid that I started high school with only three pairs of pants that I had to wash mid-week and rotate. (You think the other kids didn’t notice? You don’t know teenagers.) So my heart says, one more little present won’t hurt . . .

Plus, they are the most wonderful, beautiful, and best-behaved kids on the planets. Except for, well, when they’re not. And the amazing thing is how much I love them either way. How just the idea of them leaving for college can bring tears to my eyes and an enormous lump to my throat.

Okay, I have to go swordfight with a tiny ninja now and play with Princess and our new remote-control Polly Pocket car.

Hugs and happy weekend,
Alesia

Posted by Alesia at 8:42 PM