The first week of March P got mad about something. I don't even recall what he was mad about because, sadly, it's common thing these days. But, in his anger, he decided to throw a baseball against the side of the house, resulting in his bedroom window shattering. Had it been an accident or had he not been told numerous times not to throw a real baseball right there, we would've handled it differently. But he was told he was going to pay for the replacement window. A guy from church, who got to know P last Summer at church camp, is the one who replaced it so he gave us quite a deal. It still ended up costing a pretty penny even with the deal. So, for almost 2 months, P has diligently put every penny he has earned mowing grass or from chores to his debt. Every bit of money that has been given to him he has used toward his debt (with the exception of $5 that he wanted to use for academic dress down week). He has gone without things he wanted because he didn't have money to buy them.
Last weekend P and Rob fished a tournament that was put together by a foundation who helps kids with terminal illnesses. It's a tournament that Rob fishes with his dad every year. But, Rob's uncle had passed away a few days prior to the tournament so his dad wasn't up to doing the tournament with all the funeral arrangements that were going on. Rob asked P to fish it with him, putting them in a different division. At the end of the tournament, they had come in 2nd place with over 11lbs of fish caught! 2nd place meant a prize check. They didn't know how much the check would be, but Rob talked to P about it. He told P that they could split the check or give it back to the foundation to help raise money for trip that the kids go on, that either decision would be the right one. It didn't take long for P to decide that he wanted to give the check back. He said that, although he really wants to pay off his debt, he feels like the foundation needs it more than he does.
As parents, our goal it to raise our kids right. We mess up along the way, but we also have super proud moments where we know we must be doing something right. This was definitely a proud moment! Because he was quick to want to donate the prize check, we deducted money from his debt. He's worked hard to pay it off and will have his balance at zero by next weekend. But that's not the important part for me. What's important to me are the lessons he's learned- there are consequences for your actions and there are always going to be people who have it worse than you. At the end of the day, I am glad that he's learned both of those life lessons through these experiences!
