Consumer Power

Doodle recently earned her Consumer Power Junior Girl Scouts badge. Doodle is an awesome shopper, and in some ways it seems like she has been working on this badge since she was two years old. When we would go in to a store like Gymboree, Doodle would go through the clothes rack to find her size*, look at the tag, and then declare, "We can't buy this mommy. It's not on sale." or "Can I have this? It's on sale." (She was able to recognize if something was marked down, and knew that I love a bargain.) The clerk's mouth would drop open in surprise to see my little shopper in action.

Last month Doodle displayed her shopping skills online as she looked for an electric guitar that she wanted to buy with her own money. I didn't want the guitar to arrive before school ended, fearing that it would distract her from working on her last book report, etc., so I had her do a short report on the pros and cons of the guitar she coveted. The guitar arrived last week, the first week that school was out. Learning to play the guitar and composing music didn't take up all of her time last week so she also spent time on e-Bay, looking for a baseball autographed by her favorite player. She conned me into winning it for her, again paying for it herself. Her piggy bank is much emptier now so thankfully she is in day camp for the next three weeks.

* Doodle knew her numbers by the time she was 18 months old; sadly her early promise in math faded once she hit elementary school.