Life lessons with a fidget spinner

My family was slow to come on board with the fidget spinner craze, but it wasn’t long before my kids noticed that everyone and their uncle seems to have a fidget spinner, so of course they started asking me for one.       I said  my signature line-   “why would I buy you more toys when you cant even keep up with the ones you have?”         The subject was dropped, save a few random “fidget spinners are so cool”    ” I wonder if I will get one for my birthday?”     “I wish I had a fidget spinner”.              Today we ran a few errands, including Wal-Mart.   lo and behold,  they had fidget spinners.   And the kids had their own money.       Shiloh was less than a dollar shy of what she needed, so I offered to spot her the rest and she could pay me back when we got home.   She picked out a very “cool” LED spinner that rewards you with a little light show when you spin it.      Isaac had a total of 79 cents, but he wanted a fidget spinner.   He asked if I would give him the money, and I said no.    My mommy heart wanted to grant his every wish, make those sad eyes happy.    But I Knew he WOULD have had the money, if he hadn’t ignored what I told him.  He played with his piggy bank and broke it, then he played with the little box he found to put his money in and broke it.  Then he played with the zip lock bag and broke it.    He played with his money.  He slung it from one corner of the room to another.   He left it outside.   He left it in his pants when they went into the laundry.   Nothing I said made any difference.  Maybe, just maybe, he wanted a fidget spinner bad enough that he would start paying attention to his money.       Sure enough, when we got home, the first thing he did was search his room for money.   He found two dollars.  Not enough to buy a fidget spinner, but its better than 79 cents!   We turned it into a #teachablemoment and added up all his coins, then figured out how much money he needed.   The he asked for jobs he could do to earn some money (I’m working on a list).         Unfortunately, some lessons cant be taught.  They have to be learned from experience.