Cade had saved the last of his birthday money to buy the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game that came out Tuesday. The Lego games are huge hits around our house and he had been anticipating this for several days. I went to Springfield yesterday for the follow-up on my oral surgery back in March. I had just enough time to power shop for groceries, swing by Joanne's (my new favorite store) and then blow through Target looking for this game. I had to be back in time to get ready to go to Baccalaureate that night. At first I thought Target was out of the game, but I searched a little more and found 3 games left. I quickly grabbed an employee and got the game. I also got a free Lego set of Captain Jack and a couple of other unrecognizables that I assume are in movie #4 (which comes out May 20th if anyone is interested…Cade and I are). By this point I knew that I would only have enough time to get home, get ready and then leave again. And that is where the predicament of today's post started….
Cade knew I was looking for this game. He expected me to bring it home. I knew if I got home with it but he only had a few minutes to play it, that would make him crabby. I also knew that if I told him I had it but he couldn't open it until after Baccalaureate that would just be cruel. Cade and I don't handle anticipation well. We both like to know what's going to happen in a movie before we watch it. We still watch it; we just have to know how it's going to turn out. I also read the back of every book I ever read. I try to resist, but I can't stand it. (Any clues on why this whole adoption/infertility wait has been so hard? There's no book that I can read the back of!). So anyway, I knew that kind of anticipation would be physically painful for Cade – really, I'm telling you neither of us likes that feeling of anticipation. And Baccalaureate is long enough for the adults…can you imagine how tortuous it would be for a 9 year old knowing he has a new video game in plastic at home? That's child abuse!
So since I'm such a model parent guess what I did….yes, I lied. Actually I asked Jay to lie for me. He was supposed to tell Cade that Target was out of the game and we'd get it Thursday. Then the whole way home I wondered what I should've done. How do people who vow to never lie to their kids handle these sorts of things…then I wondered if me lying about a Lego game will someday cause him to become hooked on drugs or cause other behavioral issues. When I got home Jay hadn't lied to Cade – he forgot about the whole story I had came up with so I had to do it. Cade was very disappointed. Later I asked Jay what I should've done. Jay said that I should've told the truth and then disciplined him if/when he threw a fit about having to leave the game or if he got impatient at Baccalaureate. I'm sure Jay is right, but it wasn't that I didn't want to discipline him – I seriously thought it was cruel to say "oh, hey Cade here is the game you wanted now we have to get in the car drive 20 minutes to sit through a long church like service and then you might get one hour to play it when we get home". I still don't know what was the right answer in this situation…..
But here is where the economics lesson came in. I told Cade that Target was sold out and that I'd call the Wal-Mart's around home on Thursday to track down the game. Once you start lying there is just no end to it! He wanted to know which ones I was calling and what order…again more lies! Finally I got away from him before lightning struck me down and I went to get ready. A few minutes later Cade came in our room and said that since the stores were selling out he might not have enough money to buy it. I was only about half listening to him while looking for something to wear but I asked why he thought that. He said "well, if there is only one left then the price will go up and I won't be able to afford it." That got my attention. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was grasping at a memory…where have I heard that before. Ah yes, here it is….those long forgotten Ag Econ classes…Cade was talking about classic supply & demand. Where had he heard it?
I went to tell Jay about the brilliance of our child (even though Jay later had to help Cade get the first button started on his shirt). Jay acted nonchalant about the whole thing "oh, yeah we talked about Supply and Demand the other day".
Ok…I'm the one with the Ag Business degree and I sat through hours upon hours of Ag Econ classes….Cade's knowledge is close to surpassing mine on this subject. I'm going to have to start studying up on some things if I want to continue to be able to converse with those two. Can you imagine 9 more years of these conversations as they go back and forth to school? Guess that's what I get for lying….
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