Philosophies of a 3 year old

I like to try to teach my kids Christian values, like turn the other cheek and blessed are those who are poor in spirit. To be humble and patient and to do unto others yada yada.

But they quickly pick up on an alternative ethos, one heavily promoted in today's America: - The customer is always right!

And Zoe has well and truly picked up on this. She's a savvy little shopper already. She adores her little pink princess purse that I snagged for a quarter at a yard sale for her. She carries it around, jingling her coins and selecting her next purchases with caution.

We were at JoAnn's fabric store, where Zoe usually delights in running rampant, hiding from us between rolls of fabric and leaving a trail of knocked down rolls and destruction behind her. But this time she was somewhat calmer, because she was on a mission to spend some allowance. They have a nice little section of kids craft items for $1, and Zoe found a pack of elmo crayons that she fell in love with.

So she took them to the checkout, and placed them on the counter. The lady gave her a total of $1.08 and Zoe was not at all amused. She became very animated, her purse swinging against one hip and her hand on her other, a look of aghast on her face, her jaw fell to the floor and she said with much intonation, "A dollar eight?! That's TEH-WIBBLE!!!"

The lady at the checkout smirked a little, but remained professional and composed while she hit a button on her cashier till, giving Zoe an instant 50% discount. "How does 54c sound?". "Yes, that's bedder".

What's the point in trying to teach her that complaining gets you nowhere. It quite obviously gets you something. It gets you Elmo crayons for half off, I mean, what more could a 3 year old want?

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