Show me the money...

Ok so I said I was going to blog about baby Einstein.... that is still coming. Ok so I haven't even written it yet but I've thought about it so that's a good step in the right direction.

I am just about to begin reading a book called "Milk, Money, Madness". I assure you there will be a lengthy blog entry following my completion of it.

So. This entry is about money. I was talking to my oldest daughter yesterday and the conversation, as it does a lot with her, turned to money. She's in that age, where vanity pretty much runs the show and thier biggest stressor is what if Britney wears the SAME thing I do to school the first day...... Remember being 12?

So, she says to me:

Momma? What would you do if you won the lottery?

Now I have put a lot of thought into this question, much like every other person on the planet I'm sure. My answer tends to be a little different than the average Joe though.

I asked her to answer first. And my daughter, this beautiful girl who it seems just yesterday was toddling around in my shoes playing dress up (her feet are now bigger than mine), who I swear just last week graduated pre-kindergarten says the most intelligent, most caring, most compassionate, and most well thought thing I've ever heard.

Well..... I would first buy us a house. But not a HUGE house, just a house big enough for us to be comfortable and not cramped. Then I'd buy grandma and auntie J and uncle A houses too.... the just right kind too. Then, I'd buy you all dependable cars if you didn't already have them, so that everyone can be safe....

I TOTALLY at this point expected my daughter to start in with HER personal wish list. A convertible maybe? A horse? All the clothes at Gap?

My child people is the most wonderful 12 year old girl I've ever met. Because instead of telling me what she would buy for herself or her friends, she told me something that made my heart melt and tears stream down my face.

And THEN, she told me..... I would watch people.

I asked her what she meant by watch people.

"I would watch people, like a single mom who's busting her butt trying to pay the rent? I'd buy her a house. And the guy who walks to his job at McDonalds in the cold every winter? You remember him? I'd buy him a car. Just show up with it one day and ring his doorbell and run away so he didn't know who it was......

And then I'd find some sick kids who didn't have money for treatments. Like S's friend N who needed the cochlear implants? Weren't those like $100,000? Yeah kids like her. And I'd give thier moms and dads the money so they could hear again, see again, walk again.

And I'd go to big cities and I'd find the homeless people and most people say they would buy them lunch, but I wouldn't do that. I would really HELP them. Like find out why they are homeless... what happened? Was it drugs? injury or illness? And if they needed drug treatment I would pay for it, and when they graduated I would help them find a job and an apartment.

By this time I'm crying visibly. She asks me what is wrong and I tell her to continue because hers is the most beautiful wish I've ever heard.

She continues for another few minutes about the various types of people and what she would do to help them better thier lives. She has REALLY thought this through, it's amazing.

Then she stops and says

"But I'll never win the lottery or anything like that" I ask her why...

"Because did you ever see the people who win the lottery? When they get asked what they are going to do with the money they always say things like travel, or buy a big fancy house, or leave it to make sure thier kids are rich........

So I've decided that I think money really IS evil. So since I want to do good with it the devil will never allow me to have it. God doesn't control it at all, the devil does....... and I never want to join his side even if it means I could help people. Because money isn't the only way. Like the lady I helped with her groceries today, all these grown ups walked around her cause she was moving slow and I helped her with her bags and she was a very nice lady, she gave me $10 and wouldn't take it back............ do you know what I did with it?

She just looked at me, this sly grin on her face for a bit..... "I flushed it down the toilet, take THAT Devil!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now tell me. How did I get lucky enough in life to be the mom to a pre-teen like this. I must not be completely screwing up after all!

Did you know that the average American gives 10% of his income to charity and the average millionaire gives only 4%?