Once Upon A Time
But (sigh), these are not the traits of a master sales (wo)man, traits that, Robert Kiyosaki assures me, will make me very rich.
Fields, In Red, In Blue
So I called my daughter, who was busy playing, and asked her: C, what is money? Eyebrows going up, eyes slightly questioning (as if saying, now where is mom going with this), she says, tongue in cheek, voice bored, “It has a lot of numbers and signs on it.” Okay (sounds about right). I made a follow up question: C, do you know how you can make lots of money? Grinning, she answered, her voice lilting and confident, “I can draw it.”
Obviously, I have to teach her about money. And soon.
Interestingly, when Robert Kiyosaki was 9, he had the same idea.
To Be Mother
It was an uneventful night, a school night and I came home from work all fired up after a rather exhilarating and interesting meeting. I took out my daughter’s reminder book (which I have not looked at for 2 days) and started asking her whether she has done this or that, to which she replied, yes, yes and yes. I decided to look for the sake of looking and found out that she has not done one assignment. I called her and told her that I would help her with it. She looked at me, all eight years old of her, mocking me with eyes that said, “Why?”
Why the sudden interest? Where have you been all this time?
Hand to Heart
My daughter comes up to me and says, “Mom, I want to rest this summer.”
I shake my head in amazement. I look beyond her and am transported to hazy images of a time not long ago when I wanted to be ballerina, dancing in my pink tutu, crown on my head, traipsing over imagined ledges and leaping. Leaping! But money was spread too thinly over four kids and there was just no money for ballet classes, or extra classes for that matter. I can even see my mother and her worn out face, hear her “No”, touch her despair, wonder why in my looking glass I seemed nonchalant.