Caroline's Latest Life Lesson

Let me start by saying that Caroline has a kind heart.  Sometimes, that kind heart can get her in trouble.  Last night, she came in with a big (and I mean BIG) box of her art supplies.  When she dropped off the box she said, "Oh yeah!  Here's a note for you," and promptly ran off.  I read the note and discovered that she'd given her allowance to her friend, A.

I called her back to the room and got the full story.  Apparently yesterday her friend A (that's what we'll call him) asked her what she wanted to do.  She suggested that they go swimming at his grandparent's house and he said that was boring.  She responded, "Not if you do fun tricks!"  To which he replied, "I can do a front flip, but it'll cost you $X." Well, she just so happened to have that amount because she'd just gotten her allowance. So she got her suit and her money and they went swimming.  After he did the front flip in the pool (which she said wasn't really worth $X) I guess he had remorse and said she didn't have to pay him, BUT he'd been saving up for a Boa constrictor.  After some discussion, he decided to keep the money.  As a result, last night Caroline had a guilty conscience over what she'd done and didn't know how to fix it.

I called up Kevin and while he was on speaker we discussed the situation.  Caroline being the resident DQ (Drama Queen) took a bit of disciplining to calm down enough to figure out what to do.  She was mortified, and I mean MORTIFIED, that I was going to have her go down to A's house and explain to his grandparents what happened.  She was afraid that he was going to get in trouble and not be her friend anymore, but thanks to Kevin she realized that he wasn't really a good friend by taking the money.

In the end, it was decided that I would go down to the house and explain what had happened, and that it really was kind of funny.  Not only that, but a really good Life Lesson.  I explained to Caroline that there were three possible outcomes, 1) we'd get the money back, 2) he could keep the money and come down to work it off, or 3) he'd keep the money and she'd lose it.  She felt much better.

So, at 9:00 this morning I walked over to A's house and spoke with his grandpa.  We both got a pretty good chuckle out of it and he explained to me that his statement that he didn't get allowance wasn't necessarily true.  In fact, there's a "chore chart" that he has to follow to earn money.  His grandparents keep the money earned and then give it to him when he wants to go buy something.  However, A doesn't really want to do the chores for the money.  Ha! sounds like Jack!  I got the money back and his grandpa was going to talk to him about why what happened shouldn't have happened.  Caroline had extra chores to do as punishment for making a rash decision, and learned that true friends don't charge money to have fun together.

On an aside....Jack was upset that someone had taken advantage of his sister like that.  So I guess he does love her.