Reality sets in

Prequel

The setting : car on our way to and from picking Julia up from nursery school

The characters: Stu the "sick" boy (yeah, not so much once we'd called the school to say he was staying home)
Tracy (who is also sick, and ready for Marc to be back from San Diego)
Julia (also sick all week but getting better, but is still... um... vocal?)

"Mum can we please go to the Quickie and get me something special since I am ssssiiiiiiiiicccccckkkkkkkkk?

"no, you stayed home because you were sick - that is your something special."

On the topic of what Marc might have brought them as a gift from his trip...

"Maybe it's a Wolverine!"

"Nope, it's not a Wolverine, but you're going to like it!" (for those of you who are curious - it's a pair of Camo Webkinz pants)

"But MUM... I've always wanted a Wolverine..." (voice trembles) "Remember when you got me Cyclops?" (on my trip to Montreal in October 2006 - his friend had Wolverine, so I got him Cyclops so they could play together. Apparently a Huge Error on my part).

"And remember they always had them at Bittburg (US Air Force base in Germany) and Dad s-s-s-aid" (real trembling now" "I could have one another time, but you guys NEVER bought me one... wwwww-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-hhhhh"

And the sobbing begins.

"Stu" I say, "it's been barely 2 months since your birthday and Christmas."

We go into the mall to mail a few things. Under duress by children. I take them to the dollar store to buy bags for Valentines treats for school. They play for a few minutes on the rides - Mum does not have any dollar coins.

Stu pipes up "Mum! GET two dollar coins and GIVE them to us and we can make the rides work!"

Excuse me? Get and Give? Should I heel and sit too? Phrasing suggested to have this idea stand a chance of ever coming to fruition (something along the lines of : "Mummy, if you happen to get two loonies that you don't need, it would be really nice if Julia and I could each have one for a ride."

The Main Event

We are baking homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen at 7pm for Dad's return.

"Muuuummm... can I have (insert something, anything, because I can not for the life of me remember what he asked for, only that it was one thing too many yesterday)"

"Stuart. You wanted Mummy to stay home right? You wanted Mummy to stop working, right?"

"Uh-huh....?!" (Big eyes, Mum's not yelling, but she's gonna trick him - he knows it...)

"Well, I think you'd better decide what is really important to you."

"Ohhh-kay...?"

"You have to decide if you want Mummy home and baking cookies, or you want Mummy at work."

"Uh (in the DUH voice I hate) At HOME!"

"okay then - let's get something straight. If you want Mummy home, then that means we stop asking for things all the time. If you need all the things you say you do, then Mummy has to go back to work. And then we will have lots of money for all the toys you want, and a bigger house to put them all in. And you will go to daycare and eat lunch at school every day."

Silence (yeah!! I love it when I can shock them into silence)

"Mum - can I help with the cookies? Can I put them on the cookie sheet?" (smile on Mum's face)

I don't seem to know how to teach my children gratitude it would seem. I have to shock them into it. Sigh.