Life Lessons Learned

I printed out copies of the items Savannah's friend bought along with the lowest sale and clearance prices that were advertised online now. It added up to over $75. Savannah and I went over to her house this evening and both the friend and her mom welcomed us inside. I calmly and nicely said, "I don't want to argue or start a fight or anything, but I looked up the items that B. bought with Savannah and this is what I came up with. Perhaps B. just forgot about some of the things she got."
B. looked highly guilty and said in a small voice, "Yes, I think I forgot about some things."

Her mom went over the list of items and B. admitted getting all of them. Her mom said that she hadn't seen everything that B. had gotten that day. I can see how that could happen. Your kid gets home from the mall and you're trying to get dinner on the table; you don't look at her purchases right away; then you forget about them all together. I really think her mother was just confused and wasn't sure what the story was. When she saw it on paper, it made sense to her and she thanked me for coming over and showing her what had been bought. Her mom then wrote Savannah a check and told B. she'd be doing errands for a long time to pay it off.

Although I still don't think much of this girl's character, I can understand getting wrapped up in shopping and not making wise decisions about how you spend your money. Heck, every time I go to Target for laundry detergent and toilet paper, 10 more things tend to wind up in my cart! Anyway, Savannah now knows not to lend out money like that. A friend forgets her lunch money and wants to borrow a couple dollars - sure. Seventy dollars for shopping - notsomuch.

I do hope that Savannah will be nice and cordial to this girl in the future, but I also hope she remembers this and doesn't hang out with her outside school anymore.

Savannah said she still wanted to sell the clothes and her half of the "best friends" necklace that she and B. bought together on eBay, but since she got her money back, she wants to donate the money to Make a Wish Foundation. I think we'll list it next week after I get back from the BlogHer conference.

So, she learned that it isn't wise to lend out huge amounts of money like that.
She learned a little about this girl's character.
She learned to stand up for what's right.
She learned that not everyone is honest.
She learned that dear ole mom will be there to help her out if she needs.
She learned to forgive and move on.
And I learned that cleaning is bad.

Well, actually that had nothing to do with Savannah's money lending saga, but still, it was a lesson learned. Want to know why? While cleaning the other day, I found a pacifier behind my bed. We had tried to get Brooklyn to take this pacifier when she was an infant. She's 2 now. (Yes, that's how often I try to clean between the wall and my waterbed that can't be moved.) Anyway, Brooklyn never wanted anything to do with the pacifier. She was never interested in using it. However, since finding it the other day, she's had it in her mouth nonstop. That, my friends, is reason #48 why cleaning is bad.