Making cents

After getting in her jammies, Zoe came out of her room and approached me tonight with a fistful of dollars.

"I have to pay the boys at school."

WHAT????????

"Yeah, they made me laugh, and I promised them a dollar for every time they made me laugh."

Zoe would laugh if you told her favorite color was pink.

"You are absolutely NOT giving your money to them," I told her. "You do not pay for kids to be your friends."

Zoe has a difficult time understanding the value of money. Every day when I pick her up, she wants to know if we're going out to eat. CAN WE PLEASE GO OUT TO EAT. Just the other day, we did some running around, and I promised her McDonald's if she behaved. She actually had a coupon for a free large fry in her backpack, so when I ordered and got the food in the car, she was astounded that it wasn't a Happy Meal.

"Where's my toy?????"

"We used your coupon, so I just got...."

"WHERE'S MY TOY????"

I explained to her that money is tight, the coupon thing was great, blah blah blah. She ate her nuggets after I promised that I would find a way to get her the damn toy later in the week. Damn McDonald's.

But now she was standing in my living room with two handfuls of dollar bills telling me she had to pay some boys at school.

"You tell those boys that your mom said NO, and that you will make them a card instead."

I was short on ideas.

She took one handful of the money and held it out to me. "Here."

"What's this for?"

"It's for you," she says.

"I don't want your money. Put it back in your box."

She pressed two dollar bills in my hand. "Take it. You are always saying you don't have money. Now you do."