You may have noticed there hasn't been a whole lotta posting going on here at Florida Native Mom. That's because somebody has been stealing my best material! It's MiniMe. Now that she's a big "middle schooler" she has forbidden me from writing about her on the blog, in my monthly magazine column, etc. I would just ignore her request, but it turns out she knows how to get on the computer and find my blog. And she reads it.
This situation is kind of like having your parents "friend" you on Facebook. Totally sucks the fun out of posting messages.
But I've decided to do it anyway. So if you're MiniMe, stop reading now! And don't forget to brush your teeth!
Turns out the middle school has scheduled a field trip to Epcot for next month. The money for the trip was due today. Now MiniMe mentioned this field trip and its accompanying expense ($103.00) before the holiday break. She was determined to "earn" most of the money herself. I was totally on board with this but wondered how I'd find a job for an 11 year old girl when baby slave labor has been all but wiped out in my part of the state (at least as far as I know).
Her idea - she was going to earn the money babysitting.
Now she's never babysat before. So I suggested I had some friends that might let her come over and spend some time while they were there with the kids to let her try it out. However, my real goal was to get her to do some work around this house to earn her money!
Every day she'd ask me, "Did you call your friend about having me babysit?"
"Um, no I'll do it later. But you know there's plenty of things you can do around here to earn some extra money."
She dismisses this idea and walks away.
Next day, "Did you call your friend yet about the babysitting?"
"Um no but how about if you clean and sort my kitchen cabinets. I'd pay you for that!"
Day after day she asked about babysitting. Day after day I gave her chores to do here for money.
So today when the money was due and she had not earned any, she told me that she didn't really want to go to Epcot. She would just stay at school that day with "alternate" assignments. I wrote out the check, signed all the forms and sent her off to school with a twinkle in my eye . . ..
"You're going to Epcot AND you'll be working that money off in the meantime, and not by playing with other people's babies!"
Just call me the new and improved Baby Slave!
