Trent came home from school last Monday with a paper saying that he needed $10.00 for a t-shirt for field day. Trent seemed appalled that the school would charge 10 whole dollars just for a t-shirt and was proclaiming his frustration at such a request from the school. A few hours later, He came barreling into the kitchen with a master plan for coming up with $10.00 on his own. He got out some paper and crayons and started drawing some pictures and coloring them. A short bit later, she rushes over to show me a few quickly developed masterpieces. He had drawn and colored a few very simple pictures, a baseball bat, a baseball, and a brown bat. He told me of his plan to sell these pictures for $1.00 each to people in the neighborhood. I looked at his art, and told him he needed to not worry about getting the shirt, that we would pay for it and did not expect him to come up with the money.
A few days later I found Trent busily working at the bar. Now he was making MONEY! He drew and cut out 10
small green dollar bills and decided that he would also try and sell his fake money for $1.00 a piece. I reiterated to him that he did not need to pay for the shirt.
Well, Thursday evening rolls around, and Donald and I had arranged to have a new babysitter. We ordered the kids a pizza and we headed out to dinner and then the lake. When we got home that evening the babysitter told me about Trent having $7.00 downstairs. I assumed that she was talking about his own money from his piggy bank so I did not inquire further. The next morning, Trent comes into my bedroom and tells me that he earned $7.00 last night. That he had sold his pictures and some chocolates. I was rather confused, and a bit in shock as he told me his adventures from the evening. He told me of his gallivanting up our street a good 12 houses away, trying to sell his stuff so he could earn the money for his shirt so that we did not have to pay for it. He was very adamant that the cost of the shirt was too much money and he did not think that mom and dad should have to pay for it because we have many things we have to buy with our money like food and gas and stuff. He then said with a very disappointed tone and a depressed look on his face that he had only earned $7.00 and that was not enough money for his shirt. Unsure of how to handle this news of his wondering around the neighborhood, I quickly reminded him the importance of safety and that he should not have gone off and done that, but that we would use $5.00 of his earned dollars for the shirt and we would also pay $5.00. He then was very perplexed because he had earned $7.00, therefore only needing $3.00. He asked what he was suppose to do with the other $2.00. I said that he could save it. It seemed a light bulb went on in his head and he was rather ok with that suggestion. I then mentioned that he could save the $2.00 for his mission because missions are very expensive. He was right on board and had me put the money in a separate holding place, so that it would not get mixed up with his other saved money.
Later on in the evening, as we were eating dinner, Trent asked how long it will take to earn money for his mission. I told him that missions are very expensive, but if he saves a little bit from all of his earnings, that it will not be too bad. We told him that a mission costs more than a car does. So, naturally, Trent asks how much a car costs. We told him more than $10,000.00, to which his reply was that he would need to build 10 houses, his wood houses, in order to pay for his mission.
