"I want something! I don’t care what it is, just spend money, NOW!"

Ok, so maybe she didn’t say it exactly like that, but I guarantee that was pretty much the gist of what she was saying.

My daughter has a case of the gimmies, the greedies, the grabbies or whatever else you want to call it.  She’s 8 and I think I’m just going to have to accept that kids just aren’t fully capable at this age of being appreciative of what they’ve got. You could take the kid to Disney World one day and the next day she’ll be whining because she’s bored.  You try to explain how lucky she is to have gotten to go to Disney and that how today is a day to rest.  Yeah, that doesn’t go over very well.

I’m sort of making it sound like my daughters a total brat, she’s actually not, but she thinks money grows on trees and we can’t even pump gas at the gas station without her faking that her throat is so parched, she must have a drink-or she’ just so hungry, even though she just ate.  She wants and needs to buy SOMETHING, pretty much anything, anywhere and everywhere we go.

It’s really maddening.  I took my three kids and two of my daughters friends to the zoo just the other day, we were having fun.  We ate before we went in, I explained I am NOT spending any money.  Next thing I know my daughter is whining and begging for ice cream and to go to the gift shop.  Screw the rest of the zoo, let’s just spend money.  That was it in a nutshell.  I almost cried.

What gives?  We’re pretty frugal.  My idea of spoiling the kids is letting them pick something out at Goodwill when we go to the thrift store.  We don’t buy toys or games or much at all throughout the year.  Christmas and birthdays the kids seem to get enough to last them.

Maybe it’s a girl thing, the desire to shop til she drops.  Maybe it’s the age, not understanding the value of money.  She’ll grow out of this won’t she?