The Art Of Negotiation

While talking with Misty a few days ago on the Yahoo Instant Messenger (if you don't have this, it is SO COOL...I can talk to her and do other things at the same time!), she was desperately trying to find her seam ripper. She finally gave up and told her daughter Jazmin that she'd pay her to find it. After a few minutes, Jazmin had it in hand and walked away with her payment. Misty and I were laughing that children will do just about anything for money.
That brings us to today.
John, the kids, and I went to Target last night, and the kids got to pick out a toy from the $1 spot. Note to all new moms---the $1 spot is the PERFECT place to get cheap but fun little toys, and it's way less expensive than letting them take you down the "real" toy aisles. :) Anywho, so they both picked out big bouncy balls with little plastic animals imbedded inside. Christian's was a tiger and Caitlin's was a panther. If any of you "truly" know my sweet Christian, then you know just how horribly anal he is about things. He carried the ball ALL evening, and of course he had to sleep with it. This morning, when Christian woke up next to me in my bed, he was frantic. He had lost his tiger ball! We searched high and low. We tore apart his bed and mine. No section of the floors in either room was not searched.
No ball to be found. I was convinced it fell into the same vortex that sucks up random socks--you know, the ones you never find the mate to? Ok, back to the subject at hand...
We came downstairs, had breakfast, and all the while Caitlin and I had to listen to the poor boy whine and cry about his missing ball. Caitlin even tried to pull a fast one and give him her ball---that was a BIG no-go.
I decided to try another route. Remembering what Misty had told me, I offered to pay Caitlin $1 if she'd find the stupid ball. She made a snorting sound, turned to me, and said, "I don't need $1. I already have $10."
Fine then Miss Attitude!!
By this time, Christian was jumping up and down asking if I'd pay him $1 to find his ball. Well sure! What the heck do I have to lose? He ran upstairs, and about 15 minutes later came down empty-handed.
Still no ball, darn it! Christian then turned to me and said, "Momma, if you find my ball, I give you one hundwed dowwers!!" Now that's a deal no one can refuse! LOL
2 hours later, while vacuuming the upstairs, I found that darn ball in my stash of sewing stuff. I took it to him, and he said, "Oh Mamma! It's my precious ball!! Do I get my $1 now?"
LOL, yeah right! I told him he doesn't get paid for ME finding it. He hung his head, and with a very deep sigh, he said, "Ok, ok. I give you a hundwed dowwers now." :)