Buy Something

When Aria turned 3 we decided to start giving her an allowance to begin teaching her about money.  Aria gets 3 dollars every week, which fits nicely with being 3 and with having 3 places to put your money.  She has a piggy bank for saving, a piggy bank for giving and a piggy bank for buying.  I think it will be powerful to watch her learn to give her money to a cause meaningful to her.  I have already seen the wheels turning with that.  We have yet to make a donation, though. 

Today we had a lesson in buying something.  This morning Aria was eager to help me clean the bathrooms.  Here was our conversation:

Me: I need to clean the bathroom before we go to the concert today.
A: (very excitedly) Does my potty need to be cleaned?
Me: Yes
A: Mom, can I do it, please?!!?!
Me: Sure
A: Mom, does your potty need to be cleaned?
Me: Yes, you can clean it, too.

This kid loves cleaning toilets.  Yes, I know, send her your way.  She did such a great job I decided to reward her with an extra dollar this week.  That dollar immediately was burning a hole in her pocket.  She wanted to buy something today.  We got down her piggy banks and discovered she had 7 dollars and some change in her "buy" piggy.  We put it in her wallet and set off.  We were going to Westdale Mall for a Pied Piper concert and lunch with friends.  She was adamant to buy something at the mall. 

Problem: Westdale has about 4 stores.  We looked at a small selection of toys in Younkers, but none of them were what she wanted.  We explored Hallmark for-ev-er and couldn't find anything just right.  Then we came to Claires.  Gag.  But it has stuff right up a little girl's alley.  Of course she immediately wanted lip gloss.  The kid loves chapstick and lip stuff.  I tried to direct her towards the least messy choice, but it was her money, so I let her choose.  She picked Nerds, glittery, multi-colored lip gloss.  This girly stuff is not something she gets from me. 

She was quite proud of her purchase.  She pulled out the dollars and counted them as she put them up on the counter.  Even though I didn't really like her purchase choice, it was fun to see her paying with her money.  It was fun to let her pick something totally ridiculous and blow her money and then think, why yes I blow my money on ridiculous things sometimes, too. 

Lip gloss has been applied at least 50 times today and the proud purchase retold to Grandma and Daddy.  When did my little girl get so grown up?