A dollar well spent (truly M and P)

So I have an 8yo daughter who is always tempted by whatever cute little things she sees in the stores. The other day we were at Joann’s, and they always have racks of cutesy things for $1. She saw a sort of lilypad flower thingy labeled “Bath Confetti,” which was clearly made of soap in thin layers. She begged to be able to spend one of her own dollars on this little item, and though I thought it was dumb, I shrugged and let her spend her own money.

Best value for a dollar ever.

Last night she gave the lilypad to her 5yo sister to play with in the bath. It turns out that she had thought it was a pretty bath toy, not soap. So 5yo puts it in the water, and then lifts it up on her hand, where it promptly melts onto her hand like a green gooey skin with a flower on it. 5yo starts freaking out, 8yo freaks out that her pretty toy is melting and she didn’t even get to use it herself, and I scrape the goop off with a paper towel.

8yo is totally disillusioned–“I paid a dollar for SOAP?!?” she is yelling, crying about the utter unfairness of labeling soap ‘bath confetti,’ and swearing she will never buy anything from a dollar rack again. She even tried to ask if she could have her dollar back–first I affected to think that she wanted to go back to the store and ask for a refund, and then just said “So you want me to pay for the soap flower that I didn’t want you to buy?”

Yep, kid, there is a lot of cheap junk out there that will not fulfill your dreams. Be glad you only spent a dollar on that lesson. :cool:

Let her buy some Sea Monkeys next.

[little kid]Hmm, this looks suspiciously like neither the sea nor monkeys![/little kid]

I used to get a dollar to spend every week at the Kroger toy section. I got a lot of junk but most of the toys were pretty good. Parachute men, water powered rockets, Hot Wheels cars.

I was at a social event recently where a woman told a similar story with a different ending. Her daughter had bought something that proved worthless, and the woman “refunded” the price. Her explanation (in the face of the obvious lack of enthusiasm with which her management of this was received) was “But she was SO disappointed.”

Right. And one thing you really want to do for your kids is insulate them from disappointment.

8 years old is a good age to teach a child the ramifications of their decisions. Good or bad, they need to understand their responsibility in making choices. $1.00 worth of disappointment early on is well spent if she learns to be a wiser consumer and think out how she wants to spend her money.

poor 5 year old! she may never bathe again. or develop a fear of water gardens and floral shaped bath products.

indeed a good lesson on advertising and marketing. she will be quite the label reader.

There is some expensive junk out there that still won’t fulfill your dreams, too.