Buy exactly what they want

I discovered the way to give grandchildren exactly what they want: Take them shopping as I did just before Christmas. They held and studied several toys, lost interest and allowed me to reshelve them.

I said we couldn’t buy everything, they had to choose. My daughter had the almost 3-year-old grandson with her. I had my four and a half-year-old granddaughter. We looked at dolls, crafts and gadgety toys, but nothing interested her.

We were doing pretty good not finding anything until we reached the craft aisle with several intriguing projects that we selected. She was pointing out a couple that interested her when she saw the packaged f rainbow-colored clay with tiny animal shaped cookie cutters and four colored molds. Her interest soared. It was a great hands-on project for a little cash.
“We can’t buy everything,” I reminded her. “We will have to put some of the other things back.” She didn’t care – she held tightly onto her package of clay.

We found her littler brother and my daughter exploring in the aisles of action toys. My grandson had found a display of small emergency vehicles that rolled forward, whistled or rang when a string was pulled or a lever pressed.
He picked out three and pushed them into his aunt’s hand. “These are for you.” He was so earnest. “When I come to you r house I can play with them.”

“Why, thank you. You think I really would like these?”
“Yes, I am going to give them to you.”

“Which one do you think I would like the best?”
He studied the three packages and picked out the ambulance and the fire truck that he would get for her.
“Of these two which ONE do you think is the best?”
He studied them again and selected the fire truck with the button that activated the wheels, a siren and moved the ladder up and down.

“You want to give me this?”
“Yeah,” He looked longingly at the little fire truck.
“That would be very nice wouldn’t it?”
He nodded his head.
My daughter and I smiled at each other. She put all of the little vehicles back on the shelf and pushed their cart away. I picked up a fire truck and hid it beneath a couple other packages and whispered to his big sister. “Don’t tell. It’s a surprise.”

Her eyes gleamed with the secret.
At the check-out, she leaned over towards her brother and whispered, “We have a secret for you.”

“Shh, don’t tell,” I reminded her.
Fortunately he didn’t hear us.

Right after Christmas we celebrated his third birthday. After he blew out his candles, we handed him the fire truck.
He danced around impatiently as grandpa cut the wires and plastic that bound the fire truck to its box. He ignored the rest of his gifts, placed it on the floor and pressed the lever. The little siren whined, the wheels turned and the ladder moved up and down.

“Thanks! This is the neatest present ever!” he yelled.
But of course it was. We had after all gotten him exactly what he wanted – even if he said he wanted to give it to his aunt.


Posted

in

by

Tags: