A Cute Lesson In Self-reliance

image via

Thought I'd share a cute story that happened yesterday. It's all about the "building blocks" of teaching kids self-reliance. This opportunity to teach totally just fell in my lap, all I had to do was go with it.

The Bug has been playing with her small Lego kit quite regularly for a couple of weeks and I realized that she would probably enjoy adding more blocks so she could more easily make things. I thought that perhaps as a reward for doing such a great job with her first week of school I would take her out and buy her a new box of Legos this weekend.

At Christmas time The Man's very kind and generous dad gave The Bug and me Amazon gift cards. I've been thinking about what we would use them for. Yesterday after school it hit me that this would be the perfect thing to use her gift card on.

So she and I snuggled up and started shopping online for new Legos. She deliberated quite thoroughly on her options, changed her mind a few times and finally settled on a large box, two horses and a dog and cat set. When we got to the check out process I explained to her that we would be spending five dollars more than her gift card amount, but that I would gladly pay that for her.

Then she piped up, "Hey, how about I pay for it with my money?" I almost said no. When I looked at her excited face I saw the moment for a confidence building and learning opportunity. So I said, "That's a great idea. We have to use a card to pay online. But you can give me five dollars in cash and I will then put that money in my bank account and we can use my card to pay. " She ran to her room, got her money that she had was all organized and clipped together with her Dad last week and brought it out, unclipped it and counted out five dollars.

She arranged it nicely on the table them took the rest of her money back to her room. Then we sat down at the computer and made the purchase. She was so proud of herself it just touched my heart. We also wrote a very nice thank you email to Grandpa to thank him for his kind gift. Later as we ran a couple of errands she talked about how I should buy myself something because she had bought herself something really great. 

I was so glad I caught myself and didn't just take the fast and easy way out. It made the entire experience so much more joyful to watch her excitement. Plus I think she will value those Legos a lot more when she remembers that they came from Grandpa and that this was the first big thing she helped pay for. You just never know when  a nice moment will show up in your day.