power shopping menality of children

We went to Costco today, Black Friday, at about 5:30.  This is unprecedented in our lives.  We've not been around (and by "not around" I mean on the road to Michigan) on this day for over a decade.  We certainly have never gone to a store, on Black Friday, with our children.

I have to admit, I was sort of looking forward to some holiday madness.  I mean, I'm not into the trashy gift-fighting sensationalism the media seems to promise the larger chain stores will deliver.  But I do admit that some hustle and bustle, lights and decorations, and even blaring holiday music does put me in a festive mood.  There's simply no denying it is holiday shopping season.

We went to Costco because that's where my husband grocery shops on Friday.  Seriously.  My kids eat a ton of fruit and Costco is the place to go for our weekly berries, banana, pears and pomegranate stock up.  But today was different because we all went together and hubby and I planned to scope out Costco for some gift ideas.  My sister-in-law pretty much asked me what the kids would like for Christmas and could she get it from Costco.  Easy enough.

Anyway, Wolfie did see some amazing thing he wanted.  It was $75.  He asked if we could buy it tonight.  I told him that we couldn't buy it because it cost $75 but maybe he would get some gift money for Christmas and he could start thinking about special things he might want to buy with that money.

That got him thinking about money.  Cash, I suppose.  Oh, and he's six years old so this is what he said next:
 "Mama, I know.  We could buy this toy with your card.  You know that card you use sometimes when you buy something.  This way we could use that card and we wouldn't have to use any money!"

That was pretty brilliant, he thought.

The happy ending to this story is that the children did, in fact, get to pick out something special and we bought it for them tonight. 

Ready?

Robes.  Yes, Wolfie and Tulip both got robes and they were giddy with excitement.  They have wanted robes for a long, long time.  They hugged their robes in the car on the way home (because we didn't let them wear them) and talked the whole ride home about how he was going to wear his robe tomorrow and how long can he wear it and where he should put that special hook in his room on which to hang his robe and...

I do love shopping with my children.  Oh, and Luna got pajamas because they didn't have robes in her size.  The rub is she's wearing hers right now and the big kids have to wait until morning.  Sleep tight.