Tear Funnel

I didn't cry.  I was surprisingly together during the last day of school, and I did not cry.  Instead, I channeled all my nostalgic, heart wrenching, parental-love feelings into consumerism.  After school, we took Leila to the local Apple store and bought her a new iPod touch.  I'm not sure how it happened, but there are just times when you feel compelled to go out and spend a lot of money on your kid.  I used to think that spoiled kids were the ones whose parents gave them everything, but now I don't think that's true.  I think the spoiled kids are the ones who get everything they ask for, but when you surprise your kid with something they didn't even know they wanted, or never thought they would ever get, its not spoiling.  At least that is the rule I have made up in my own mind, and its working for me.

Its so much fun to rock your kid's world, whether its a small thing like getting pizza for dinner, or a huge thing like buying them an iPod.  And we did rock her world, believe me.  This morning she texted us from her bed.  She can do that, now: text.  What have I wrought?

The next thing will be a phone.  I think its coming in the fall.  I will get the cheapest, crap-ass phone I can find, and only let her use it for emergencies. Or if she wants to have a play date.  Or if she needs a ride.

After the phone, it will be Proactive.  That's coming too, with a pubescent vengeance.

So, spoiled or not?  I have no idea.  But I sure love that kid, and she thanked us about a hundred times, and she is the happiest fifth grader in the world.  She would have been the happiest fifth grader in the world without the iTouch, but it put her over the top.

Yeah, she's pretty happy...