Fifty cents, the Gup-G and shoveling dog poop

We asked our oldest if he wanted to earn some money taking care of a friend’s animals while they were away. It would involve shoveling out the dog poop form their walk-in outdoor kennel and putting the cat inside every night. He jumped like a rabbit and couldn’t wait to get started. For a month  he’s wanted a Spider-Man night light and we explained to him that with this money he could get that and still have $30 leftover.

For four days he was eagerly scooping poop. He’d walk up and down the cedar shavings, looking for poop and then use the pitchfork to scoop it out.

At the end of four days he was in disbelief that the money was his. I kept it for him, but it was all his and he could whatever he wanted to with it.

On our store trip that week we were in the cookie isle and he wanted to get the brand name cookies with M & M’s in them. I told him that those cookies were .50 more than the other cookies and that if he wanted those then he’d have to pay me .50. He said OK.

However, that talk of money reminded him of the cash that I was holding for him.

“Do you still have my $40”, he asked.

“Yes I do” I responded.

“And I can get anything I want?”

So with that we went to the toy isle to find the litany of Octonaut toys. He’s loved the Octonauts for years now and the toys for the show are really well made and compliment the fact that he, and his friends love to watch it. We explained to him how much each toy was, how much he would get back and what that equaled in terms of ice cream and other things he can relate to.  The Spider-Man night light it seems, had gone the way of the dodo.

In the end he went with the Gup G. It’s a $26 transport vehicle for various Octonauts and their cars. Once he realized that it was his and that he had bought it with the money that he worked for he beamed. His smile was sincere, wide and radiated through his five year old body.

My wife and I talked about him doing that job and how it was important that he do the work. If he, pardon the pun, crapped out, and didn’t do the work then he wouldn’t get paid for that day. But during those days he shoveled the poop, fed the dogs, scrubbed the water bowls and put the cat away in the barn. He did the work.

After dinner on the day of his great purchase of the Octonauts he ran upstairs before eating his cookie. When he came back down he gave me .50.

I asked him, “What’s this for”?

“It’s for the cookies”, he said with a dismissive look and tone.

It took me a moment to remember our agreement from earlier that afternoon. I took his money, thought about giving it back to him, but kept it. Internally I had the same beam of happiness that he had earlier with the Octonaut toy.  We’re doing something right, I thought.

That night I did put the money back in his piggy bank. I even included a little bit of interest.