The kids are old enough now that when the receive money as gifts, they want to spend it. You In the past I've been able to put it all all into their college funds and they were none the wiser, but now they're onto me. The new deal is that they can spend half but they have to save the other half. So far, so good.
Since Big A's birthday he's been wanting to go to Toys R Us to spend his money but I made him wait until after Christmas so that we'd only have to make one trip. Since the day after Christmas he's asked every day if we could go but for one reason or another we didn't make it. Monday after work, I finally took them on their shopping spree and was it ever eye opening!
Our first stop was at Toys R Us. Big A decided that we were going to look at his stuff first and made a bee line straight for the Legos. The shelves were virtually empty but they did have one large set (Lego City Farm) that he has wanted. As an added bonus, the set was on sale for $40 off! Good choice!
He picked that immediately but just HAD to have something John Deere to go with it. We headed off to the trucks/cars/tractor aisles as I braced myself for what was sure to ensue.... Twenty minutes of, "This is nice. OH! Look at THIS! What about this? Oh! Maybe this! No... I like this! Wait! What about this? OOOH! Look, Mommy! This is AWESOME!" Sure enough, he looked and looked and looked and picked up and put down and picked up and put down and picked up and put down... And Little A waited patiently only asking a couple of times if it was her turn yet.
I finally had to tell Big A that it was time to go and that he needed to make a decision. He finally decided on a John Deere pick-up truck pulling a trailer that was hauling a tractor. Another good choice!
On to the princesses and dolls! Little A looked around for a minute and came up to me with a plastic purse set. The set contained a plastic purse, fake sunglasses, lipstick and keys, and some play money. At that point it dawned on me that Little A didn't HAVE to spend her money at Toys R Us (Big A had a coupon and gift card for there so he didn't really have a choice which was FINE with him!) so I asked her if she wanted to go to Target and get a REAL purse and REAL sunglasses to put in it and she agreed.
Girls sure are good shoppers (and FAST, too!)! Here's the list of what Little A purchased with her money:
* 1 sparkly, pink, princess purse
* 1 pair of Hello Kitty sunglasses
* 1 pair of Snow White sunglasses
* 1 pair of purple butterfly gloves
* 2 Tinkerbell necklaces
* 1 pink bathing suit
* 1 pair of white sandals
* gifts for three of her friends
Talk about a great haul! She was THRILLED!
Now... Let me preface this next part before I continue... I am in NO WAY criticizing men or boys or Big A, this is purely an observation.
Okay... Now that I got that out of the way...
I realized after this shopping spree that the way my two kids shopped Monday night, is very typical of males and females (at least from what I've observed). Males are into themselves. They want what they want and they want it now. There was never a thought in Big A's head that he might want to buy something for someone else (nor should there have been, I'm just saying...). It was all about what he could get for himself and how big it could be. Females are great shoppers, get the most for their money and are always thinking of others.
Think about this point for a minute. What do you think??? Do you see male and female shoppers like I do?
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