When we were kids, back in the stone age, we’d sneak cookies or whatever snacks we could find around the house. I suppose all kids do this, and always will. But there is a new twist to the desires of children for sweet treats. It’s called an ipad, and even the Pope has one.
Ed’s school gave each teacher an ipad in order to boost technology use (or maybe it was just because the Pope has a twitter feed). Anyway, Ed downloaded some free apps, like the New Yorker, but he used my Apple ID to do so. Not really thinking about it, he left the Apple ID logged on the ipad. Monkey Man is quite the ipad geek, and for a six-year old, he is adept at maneuvering from app to app, and at finding exactly what he wants among what seems to me an indecipherable mess of apps, games, and junk that swim in no particular order on the screen.
After a long day of school, Monkey Man went to the ipad while I started dinner. I glanced over and wondered what he was doing because it looked like he was downloading more apps. Ed confirmed my suspicion, but thought that they must be free, and we continued with dinner preparations.
Later that night, I got a receipt from Apple for $25.00 worth of apps — perfectly reasonable ones for a six-year old: Dora the Explorer app, a PBS Kids app, and a Cars 2 app. Clearly , Monkey Man knew exactly what he was looking for, made his selections, and purchased with the power of a permanently logged on credit card.
The next day, I told Monkey Man that he couldn’t just buy apps since they cost money, and since generally speaking, buying extras like this requires a job. I was more amused than anything by Monkey Man’s resourcefulness, and his ability to find the apps that he thought he and Gorilla Girl would like, but I still felt the need to remind him of the age-old parents’ lament — money and/or credit cards do not grow on trees.
Monkey Man’s response to my suggestion that if he wants to buy apps, he’ll have to wait until he has a job was the perfect precursor to the eye-rolling teenager. “Um, I was milk helper today at school.”
His teacher commented that she’ll need to do a lesson on paid vs. unpaid labor soon!
Necessity is the Mother of Invention 
We too learned our lesson the hard way about the permanently logged on credit cards !! After our ‘small’ talk with the 4 and 6 year old, now whenever they take the i pad to play, they look at us and say, “we know, we know money doesn’t grow on trees” 🙂
Oh boy Peggy I am so laughing out loud thinking mom and dad are saying now you see Peggy- I recall you wanting many records and that same story from mom and dad’ mouth ( I never asked for a thing…right???) Can’t wait to see monkey man and gorilla girl when they are teenagers…..ummm what were we like and how we though mom and dad were crazy and too strick.
I know, Ei. It is funny to see them wanting things that I don’t care about. I guess we all have our weaknesses. Me books and records, for sure. Funny, now I hardly ever buy new music.
Monkey Man rocks! Maybe he can come over to the house and hook up my laptop to the TV screen. I sure as hell am challenged by the task.
That is too funny (and impressive)! I can just picture him sitting there, intent on his work, downloading apps …