Money,Money,Money

The kids have discovered the school store.

I hate school stores. All they sell is crap so I'm a double bad guy-one for not giving the kids money and two for not giving the kids money to buy junk food. I understand they are often fund raisers but like all the other shit schools sell to fundraise I wish they would just ask me for a check.

Anyway,not only is there a school store but sometimes the kids have to pay fines for certain infractions, I think not signing in is one. Each student can open a discretionary account that they can draw from. We haven't gotten to that point yet. After a few days of being nagged for money we instituted a set of chores that they can do to earn cash. They have chores already that they have to do because they live in the house but this is extra stuff. We pay slave wages-filling or emptying the dishwasher for 5 cents,straightening up little areas for 10 cents,etc. The money they earn is what they have to spend at Sudbury. Amelia earned 2.25, Des 1.75.

This has led to a couple of interesting discussions. Amelia quickly realised that she was not going to have money to spend every single day so she decided to have one day to spend a dollar and she put the rest in her piggy bank. Des was a littled miffed that he wasn't getting as much as Amelia but since it was equated with how much work he did he couldn't blame it on me being unfair(a favorite pasttime). He decided that he would spend some money on gum and save the rest.

Now, I don't let my kids chew gum. It's bad for their teeth and, even though I hated teachers for saying this, it's a really unattractive habit. I don't chew gum anymore because I'm sensitive to some of the ingredients and it gives me canker sores. I told Des that he's not allowed to chew gum and he said "But mom, you won't be there so you can't stop me, right?" Not in an obnoxious way, more like he was reasoning out loud. Now, dear reader, how would you have responded to this?

I hate to end on a cliffhanger but I'm being paged by a wailing baby. Adieu.