Stuff Stories Are Made Of
It’s Ben’s birthday tomorrow but we took him to get his birthday present today: A PS 4 that he’s been wanting for more than a year. We’re pretty cool parents, eh? Except, he had to pay for it himself so what we really got him was permission and a ride.
We already have a Wii and an XBox and although they’re older, they still work just fine and we just weren’t going to buy a PS4 last year as well. We told him if he saved his money and could buy it on his own, we’d *think about* letting him get the new console. He’s been doing a lot of saving but would get derailed from time to time and set himself back a little; A new Airsoft rifle, new video games for our existing platforms, etc. But for his typical reckless way with money, he did pretty well resisting blowing cash on trinkets or other things that held only temporary interest.
We all have stories about the “crazy” things we had to (or were able to) do when we were our kids’ age; From a single rotary phone that all 9 of us had to share to being the last people on the planet to finally get an Atari game console from a garage sale and other things that were no big deal at the time but sure seems like it to kids today.
I’m just writing this down so Ben’s kids will know his story is legit. Yes, dear grandchildren, your dad really did have to save up his own money and still be a good kid all year just to get permission and a ride to buy his own birthday present. So be thankful for what you have. And get off my lawn!