I’ve posted a lot about my son’s addiction to buying things. Give him a dollar and he wants to buy a jet. If he gets 50 cents he uses it to get a fake tattoo. If he can’t find what he wants he will still get something different rather than go some place else.
But if he cannot find anything that he likes or that he can afford his anxiety levels start to rise. The longer it takes the more frustrated he becomes until he gets either the one thing he doesn’t like or he walks out of the store in anger.
This is where I learned to say “No”. Whenever we go to a store all he hears is:
“No.”
“Not today.”
“Put it on your wish list.”
And it goes on and on the more things he sees that he wants to buy. And frankly, I’ve told him that if he wants to get anything he will have to use his own money because I am not going to buy things just because he wants them.
There are exceptions to this rule. If we go to a museum I will let him get something in the gift shop. If we go to the golf range he can get an ice cream. Let’s face it I do like buying things for him but I know he has to learn to not only take care of his money but he also has to learn not to buy so much.
On our recent trip to Battleship Cove I knew he would want to go to the gift shop so I made sure I had money for that stop. Driving down all he talked about was a bedroll he wanted to get. It had “USS Massachusetts” emblazoned on it and he expected it to be perfect to use instead of our sleeping bags.
But horror of horrors, when we got to the store they were out of bed rolls. He had been dreaming about getting one since our last trip a year ago. So now what? When Max gets focused on something it is hard for him to change gears. But luckily there were a lot of things to his liking. He decided he wanted a t-shirt. But not just any old shirt, he wanted the one with the skulls and cross bones all over it.
“Please Daddy, it’s only $25.00.”
Nope, not going to happen. As I told him not only was the price over the budget but he could only get something that had to do the ships at the Cove. Okay, he finally settled for a t-shirt with the “Lionfish” submarine stenciled on it. Funny thing, it was an extra large; he is a small 9 year old. The shirt won’t even fit me.
Later when we got home his mother asked him since it was so large would Daddy be wearing it.
“No Mommy, it’s too big for him!” I take a medium, sometimes I can fit in a large.
“Then isn’t it too large for you?”
“No, of course not. I’m going to wear it to bed.” After he bought it he wore it the whole weekend around the ships.
I didn’t mind getting it for him even though it was so large. He loved it and for $7.00 we couldn’t go wrong. And since there was a little money left in the budget he was able to pick up a pair of dog tags to wear around his neck.
Very successful shopping trip!
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