Who Needs a $15 Yo-Yo Anyway??

Owen came home retelling the tale of an assembly at school.  As the visitor told the story of NED walking the dog, and visiting the Eiffel Tower, and eating spaghetti; he performed tricks that corresponded to each vignette. The kids were awed at the things you could do with a yo-yo.


The visitor was actually a motivational speaker. His aim was to motivate the children to "Never give up", "Encourage others" and "Do your best". Owen came home motivated to buy a yo-yo. Who could blame him, really? This NED guy was inspiring. He could do cool things. Maybe the N.E.D. actually stands for:


Never give up on asking your parents for a yo-yo.
Encourage others to buy a yo-yo.
Do your best to get your parents to buy you the yo-yo.


You may be shocked to learn that the motivational speaker actually...SELLS YO-YOs...after his performance. So, Owen drooled as he watched peers buy the Ned-yo ($6.50), the Boomerang ($10) and the Cosmic Spin ($15).  And upon his return from school, the first words out of his mouth as he rushed through the front door: "I NEED $15. If I don't get $15, I won't be able to get the best yo-yo EVER and I only have like, 5 more days until the school won't sell them anymore!"


Wow.  This is desperation now, not motivation. 


My first thought? "Sheesh, $15 bucks? Don't you have 5 yo-yos hidden under a pile of dirty socks somewhere? I've just given $40 to your school this week already."


However maybe I could use this...


My response? "$15 bucks is quite a lot of money...  and I am not going to just fork it over because you WANT something RIGHT now.  How about I will let you earn it over the weekend? If you are really wanting this yo-yo, and then you can show me how much by putting in a little effort for it."


I'm sure he went to bed thinking about all the yo-yo tricks he so desperately wanted to do. But that now seemed impossible because of the heavy chore burden I was about to enforce upon him.


Okay, I probably shouldn't use 'enforce', but if you don't have first hand experience with it: 10year old + chores = exasperation.


However, I was pleasantly surprised... Owen worked with gusto and determination I have not seen before. When reminded of the things he had agreed to work on, he gladly did them - even re-did them when they were not quite passable as having been complete. This must really be some yo-yo.


So today, as I hand over the envelope with the $15 check, I don't feel like I'm getting totally ripped off by some elementary yo-yo scam. My son learned a good lesson in earning rewards and I have clean bathtubs and streak free mirrored closet doors. Very win-win.