Wednesday, August 15, 2007

We take all Major Credit Cards and Checks w/2 forms of ID

On the way home from work yesterday afternoon I stopped by the gas station. I decided rather than paying at the pump I would go in to the convenience store as it was rather warm and I wanted to grab some bottled water.
No sooner had I unbuckled the twins from their seats had J leapt out and began to admire the shoes of the woman pumping gas on the opposite side of us.

"You have very pretty shoes" J said "I really like the the shiny jewels".

"Thank you" the woman said

Not missing a beat "J continued "Ohh and you have pretty orange polish on your toenails" and then B stepped up and said "I'm a superhero"

My kids are very friendly and can be very chatty. (I have no idea where they get that.) Usually when they do this I'll let them say hi and then quickly move them along so as not to annoy the person they've decided to chat with. This lady was engaging though, and told J she needed to redo her polish and asked B what kind of superhero he was so I let them continue to chat her up.

"They're so cute" she said to me.

What a nice woman for engaging the kids I thought. As much as I like kids, if I was on my way home and it was hot and I got bombarded by a couple of unknown kids I might be a little dismissive. But she wasn't and I appreciated that.
As quickly as these thoughts were flowing through my mind I watched the lady get in to her car while one of the twins was still talking. No "ok bye " , no "yeah right gotta go".

WTF!? Ru -hude!

Seconds later she reappered waving a $5.00 bill at me.

"They're so sweet " she says "Here, go get them some ice cream or something"

Shocked as this is a true first for me I said " That's VERY nice of you but I can't take it"

"I insist" she says more persistently waving the bill at me.

"Ok, you don't have to tell me twice" I joked and took the five from her. "Wow, thanks, that is really very nice of you. Kids make sure you tell the nice lady thank you"

With several thank yous from the twins we headed off in to the store when another thought popped in to my head.

"B & J, who else do you think has nice shoes around here ?"

Huh, cute little kids complimenting people can actually cause people to dole out cash. I could make a career out of this.

Maybe there is something to this concept of pimpin your kids...

22 comments:

you da mom! said...

that's amazing. i gotta teach squid to do that when he's older! let's see, $5 x 15 strangers a day = what...$75? do that for a week and you'd have like...$500?? ok, i'm not that good at math.

Anonymous said...

Dress 'em in their swimsuits and nighwear and you might just have a home run!

Oh, wait ... that only works for drive through coffee joints! :-)

Carol said...

ROFLMAO!! You could be on to something here!

~Jennifer said...

ROFL!! Chaos stole my comment. ;-)

MommasWorld said...

Love it! When my older two would go out wit me to the beauty shop or a restaurant they made sure to be especially quite and as still as possible. People always offered them sodas, candy or a free desert.

It was truly wonderful that the lady recognised your children have great manners. They must have really made her day :-)

Butrfly Garden said...

HAHAHA... EXCELLENT!!

I think I would have been slightly offended if I was in that situation. You handled it SO much better! hahaha.

Stacey said...

It was bizarre when it happened Butfrly. Initially , I thought she's paying my kids to shut the hell up and do I look so poor that I can't afford ice cream for my kids.
Then I chuckled and realized it didn't matter. Hell money is money and free money is the best kind!

akinvt said...

You should have told her that $5 doesn't really buy two ice creams anymore and could she spare $10?

Lady Latte said...

Yeah, you try to teach the kids that they do not get money for nothing (it is the frugal thing to do for a parent). But, heck, when it is someone elses money, it is another story! It is only fair, we mothers were in labour with them when they had faces like raisins!

Christine said...

That is hysterical! But, yeah, ice cream is more than 5 bucks these days. What a cheapskate ;)!

Shauna Loves Chocolate said...

That is just too funny!
They are awful cute, though.

Queen of the Mayhem said...

DAMN! No one has ever given me money for the kids!


You are SUCH a pimp!!!!!!!! :)

I'm off to the gas station!

Anonymous said...

Obviously I need to get cuter kids.

Seriously though, that was really nice of that woman.

OhTheJoys said...

Really? She gave you money? I find that so strange. I mean, what was she thinking?

Brillig said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my gosh, that's so crazy. I, too, think I would have been offended. Like, don't they look like they're well-taken-care of? Do you really think I need your five bucks? Haha. I love how you handled it. But, just between you and me--did you buy something for yourself with the five bucks? Come on, tell the truth...

Fourier Analyst said...

And thus begins the long, slow slide into darkness....

What do you think was the incident that led the Mom in the previous blog to reach the pimpin' her daughter stage? Wanna bet the daughter started out selling lemonade in one those cute summer sundresses!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...interesting.

I wouldn't know about kids chatting up strangers...Fa is just starting to talk to people she knows!

Stacey said...

JJ- Funny that you bring that up. Because they are so chatty we've had to have several discussions about only speaking with people when Mommy, Daddy or Grandma have given permission. I have to constantly remind them of that.
We've had the talk,several thousand times, about strangers (and non strangers) that can seem very friendly but can hurt you . I'll continue to have it with them as its extrememly important they are aware.
When out in public, I typically am either holding their hands or have my hands placed on their shoulders if we're stopped and talking to someone (or they're in a cart when were in stores that have them).

Believe me I have a healthy fear of strangers as it relates to my kids ( and myself too really) and of course the pimpin' them part was all in jest.

Stacey said...

Oh and Brillig,
I let them pick out what they wanted and lo and behold they wanted these tiny packets of candy corn which were 2 for $1.00. Then I got my bottled water on her dime and had a little bit of change.

Melanie D. said...

I hate when that happens, I think someone is being rude and they're off doing something nice. That lady sounds super nice - $5 for some cute kids. That's awesome.

Anonymous said...

Ummmmm, what????? There is something seriously wrong with that woman. I think I would have had some choice words about her $5...but you handled it beautifully and I will try and emulate you in the future.

Cherann said...

Maybe you should quit working and start pan handling with your kids. Geez. you can't have been there more than 10 minutes...

They can potentially make $30 an hour!