Our poor kids....

"Like all parents, my husband and I just do the best we can, and hold our breath, and hope we've set aside enough money to pay for our kids' therapy." ~ Michelle Pfeiffer

I think we have done enough to our kids in the past few months to send them to therapy for life.

First, there was the Wii incident. Back in November, Jesse and I were entertaining the thought of purchasing a Wii. We walked into Fred Meyer one day (without the kids), and there were some Wii's behind the electronics counter. We bought two, one for us and one for Ebay, since we figured there would be constraint problem again this year. We weren't sure we'd keep them, but we wanted to get them while we could and discuss it later. About a week later, we decided to get the rest of the paraphenalia to play as a family, and hid it in our room. We started adding up the costs, and realized that $249 for the Wii was just a start. Still, we debated. Since we are such good secret keepers, we started to quiz the kids about how they would feel about a Wii. Like any good children, they told us how much they would love one. I decided to spill the beans, but we qualified it by saying we weren't sure if we were keeping it. They wanted to see proof, so out the system came. Their eyes were as big as bowling balls! They didn't think their parents could possibly be that cool. Well, we aren't, since we told them we were taking it back. Their stunned little faces looked at us with pleading. They plead with us that evening, and after discussion, we decided to keep it. Until a few days later, when we thought about it more. We told them we were taking it back. Until we changed our minds again. Finally, the good, responsible parents finally won over and took it back, liking the look of the moola in the bank account and trying to ignore the puppy dog eyes/evil stares from them. We somehow convinced them that a Wii wouldn't be any more fun than their Nintendo GameCube. (Still not sure how we did that!) Of course, we returned the one we wanted to sell on Ebay, too, not sure about the risk. (We have high IQ's!)

Come January, the kids had played a Wii at a friend's house and loved it. They started saving. Then we saw games at Costco and bought a couple (not owning a Wii yet, I guess we just thought we'd stare at them until we did). A few days later, Ashley spent 90 minutes one afternoon calling every store in the metro area until she found 5 at a Best Buy in Tualatin. No, they hadn't saved half of the price, but we faxed over the payment anyway so Best Buy would hold it for us while we raced down south. We were the proud owners of our third Wii in two months, this time to stay. (And I am asking myself, why did we return the other two???????)

Then there was last week when we went to pick up the Acura from its service appointment and we took a long time getting back. Megan called us, and knowing her parents, asked, "Are you guys buying a car???" Uh, yes and no. We were negotiating about a possible used TSX. Ashley reminded us we were using Jesse's Mitsubishi, which we have told her she will learn to drive on, as a trade. Not cool. Oh. Better judgement prevailed, and we decided to keep the status quo. Of course, when we made the announcement I describe next, they decided they wanted the new (used) car. Nope, we'll just save that money for therapy.

Finally, this year we decided we weren't sure about keeping our boat. We enjoy it when we go out, but between the funeral and the lousy summer weather we had last year, we hardly used it. We decided we'd like the money back in our pockets instead of sitting in our garage. I also thought it would be nice to access that half of the garage without having to climb over a boat. (I had such fond memories of having to lift a couch onto the back of the boat for storage when it wouldn't fit in the room with the Christmas tree, too.) We told the kids our decision, and put it on Craigslist. We didn't get a lot of bites, and those we got wanted us to mark it WAY down (out of the question). Our listing expired, and upon further reflection, we told the girls we were keeping the boat. One evening, Jesse and I were in Costco and saw a great 3-man tube. We decided that since we were keeping the boat, it would be more fun to have a tube that the girls could ride together. We brought it home and showed the girls, who immediately began dreaming of summers out on the lake. Ashley even told her best friend about it and told her we would take her out, too.

.....That was before one of bites we had a month ago became serious. With a reasonable offer on the table, Jesse and I couldn't justify keeping the boat. Again, we had to say, "Hey kids, remember how we said we were keeping the [boat, in this case]? Well....." Ashley wrote an unsolicited essay on why we should keep the boat the next week, and Megan wrote a protest note in her grammar book next to a sentence that talked about a boat. Did we cave? Of course not! We want our children to be in therapy for the rest of their lives!

The buyer drove down from BC on Saturday and after a water test, gave us the cash and we gave him the boat. The tube? Back to Costco.

I am not sure if my parents were ever this crazy, but I hope so.

"Mothers are all slightly insane." ~ J.D. Salinger

Some more than others....... :)