Privy Purse For Princess
My parents never believed in the concept of pocket money. So while my class fellows will try the newly introduced chow mein in school canteen I munched on the parathas given by mom. I turned out to be ok and fortunately none of my class fellows had a hormone imbalance. Unknown to my mother, I secretly bartered the parathas for the chow mein and samosas with my class fellows.
The scam was exposed by my cousin (a few class junior to me) to the horror of granny and mom. I was unable to explain this disgraceful antinational preference for cheap Chinese import when indigenously produced “desi ghee parathas” were being packed in Tiffin every day.
Long story short it took me some time to understand why our 10 year old needs pocket money when she suddenly demanded the same. Honey I told her, you don’t go anywhere without us, your mom packs breakfast for you and lunch in school is already prepaid for the year by daddy dear. So, why do you need pocket money? Well she gave the perennial answer because all my friends get it, which I have never been able to relate to. We postponed the problem by offering to reconsider the same in case she comes in top 5 kids in class in term exams.
Well, it seems we have set the bar too low and soon she was proudly waving her report card in front of us. This time she came ready with more facts and figures than just on her report card. We got data for 5 of her best friends from school and the apartment complex and the money they are receiving every month. You can stand to the offensive of your 10 year old rebel, but you cannot stand to the charm of your 10 year old, especially when she is ready with data.
Truce was reached and a Privy Purse of 500 Rs (INR) was agreed upon, but not before some conditions were attached.
- Money will be paid in installments 200 on first, then 100 each of the next 3 weeks Friday evening.
- She needs to save minimum INR 50 every month that will be deposited in her account, for every 50 rupees she saves I will add another 50 to her account.
- But the biggest part of the bargain was that she will not throw any tantrums in the market to buy stuff that was not on the list when we left home.
The 3rd point has given us a lot of peaceful shopping experiences in the supermarket with she calculating in a corner how poor she will be if she buys another set crayons or it would be ok to continue to use the current one.
Well the truce has been broken many at times by both the parties and her grandparents have actually thrown in spoilers at time by giving her money whenever they meet her. But the big surprise came from the younger one, on learning that elder one is richer by 500 Rs every month she also wanted some action. I quizzed her what she wants and pat came the reply I want 10 coins as they make good sound, I promise I will not swallow them.
Well let us see how long this cuteness continues and the younger one wants to caress to grow up to paper money from her fascination of jingle of coins. 🙂
Sasha and Prasad Np are proud parents of 2 girls whom they fondly call Princess (11 yrs in Feb 13) and Pinkette (4 yrs next month). He wears many hats after taking a break from being corner office critter for a long time. He is now entrepreneur, blogger, photographer, traveler and an investor in startups with unique concepts. He blogs at Desi Traveler, and can be reached at Facebook and Twitter.
