Future Entrepreneur

Ellie decided to sell her stuffed animals so she could make enough money to buy a new stuffed animal. I told her that would take some planning to put ads out and set up a garage sale, but she really wanted to do it. So last weekend when I was out at a craft fair, Ellie and Greg pulled out a bunch of the stuffed animals that we had won at Circus Circus and set up a little stuffed animal stand in the driveway. They hung a sign saying "Stuffed Animals 4 Sale" over the real estate sign for our house and hung a few animals on the hooks of the sign. Then they waited. Ellie got antsy pretty quickly and kept asking when people were going to come buy an animal. She even tried taking a bear, standing on the sidewalk, and making the bear wave its arms to all the passers by. Finally, Greg decided to take a page from the Papa school of childrearing and snuck into the backyard and paid off the kids next door to come buy an animal from Ellie. The kids used Greg's dollar to buy a few animals and then, amazingly, they went back and got their own money and bought a few more. Ellie ended up making about 6 dollars.

A few days later, she took her money from the sale plus some other dollars she had and she and I went to Borders to pick out an animal. We pulled out all the animals that fell into her price range, lined them up side by side, and narrowed them down to the cutest three. It was a dog, a cat, and a monkey. Ellie decided finally that the dog was the cutest, but she assured the cat that she would come back for it when she made more money.

A few days later, I told Ellie that she could take her piggy bank to the Coinstar machine and get dollars for all her coins. She loved that idea, so we brought in her coins and traded them in for about $25. Ellie wanted immediately to go to the park and wait for the ice cream man. I have a standing answer of no to ice cream at the park, so she was thrilled that she would finally get to override my answer and buy her own. She brought her purse with her wallet that had all her money in it and she met some kids at the park and pretty soon the ice cream man came and she ran over and bought ice cream for herself and two other kids. She was like Mickey Rourke in Barfly. "To all my friends! Ice cream for everyone!"

Today, Ellie wanted to go back to the store and I hemmed and hawed a bit saying, "Do you really need another stuffed animal?" But she got teary and said she already told the kitty that she'd come back for her and I said, "Well, it is your own money and you can spend it where you want." But I also reminded her that if she buys the kitty she won't have as much money to buy other things and that when you spend money you have less of it. She said she understood but I know it's the kind of lesson you have to experience to really get.

So we went back to Borders and Ellie bought the kitty plus a Berenstein Bears book and I stood off to the side as she went up to the counter, gave the man her items and pulled out her purse and wallet to pay. The man was very nice and called her "young lady" and said, "Thank you so much, you've been a very polite customer." Ellie mostly giggled through the transaction. On the way out, Ellie said, "I like that man. I want him to be your boyfriend." Then she immediately pointed to an advertisement and said, "Look mommy, there's Jon Stewart!" and I said, "I want him to be my boyfriend."