Economics of a 7- year-old by Jamie

I am quite sure Bo is going to be an entrepreneur.  He has the energy, stamina, and dreams of the impossible.   He also LOVES to find people to hire him for doing work.   Today he was counting his money, while telling us that he did some work for my dad. 

“I have twenty dollars mom!”  He said quite proud.  “I was only supposed to earn ten dollars, but papa gave me a bonus, so now I have twenty.”

I just laughed to myself at his enthusiasm, and his use of the word bonus.  Seriously, how does this kid know the word bonus.  He was 7 and sounding like he was working a 40 hour week.  Next thing ya know he will be inquiring about vacation pay.      

“Bo, what does the word bonus mean?” I asked

“I don’t know, but it means I got $20” He said, again sounding quite proud of his accomplishment.

“So did Papa say the word bonus, is that how you know that word.” I prodded

“Yup.” He answered so matter-of-fact.  “And that is why I have all this money.”

Later that day, after Bo had counted his riches and put them in his piggy bank, he was faced with quite the economical decision. 

Ya see, he is still struggling with waking up in the night to go potty.  I blame it on the fact that he uses soooooo much energy during the day his body is utterly exhausted and simply refuses to come out of it’s comatose rebooting state.   So, to help me not have to wash his sheets everyday he wears a pull up.  Well, those things are not cheap, so I tell him to reuse them on the nights he doesn’t wet in them.  He informed me that he doesn’t like to wear them again and he would rather throw them away. 

“OK, then.”  I told him.  “Then you have to pay me $2 for that pull-up.”

“Ok, I will pay you $2” Bo responded.  Apparently he feels rich from his bonus.

“You have to pay $2 per pull-up.”  I said making sure he knew what he was getting into.

“Well, how much is a whole package of pull-ups cost?” he asked.

“$20” I said, seriously wondering what his decision would be.  With his expressive eyes growing, and his head shaking.

“I AM NOT paying that.”  He responded as he left the room to collect the dry pull-up he recently put in the trash.