Hi Darlings!
Caiden, or “Hot Sauce” as we like to call him, is our seven year old son. He recently had a chocolate bar fundraiser for baseball. I’m sure that many of you are familiar with fundraisers. I know everyone just loves them, right? Yeah, I know not really… So, Caiden had two boxes of chocolate bars, 60 bars in each box. My dad happened to be visiting at the time Caiden got his boxes of chocolate; my dad being the amazing man and papa that he is, bought an entire box. What? Yes, the whole box. He can’t even eat the chocolate, because he is on a healthy lifestyle kick. That is one dedicated papa!
Caiden was left to sell 60 bars of chocolate on his own. Here is the challenge, I don’t really know that many people in California yet! I don’t work and Chris works out of Nashville, TN and Both of our families live in different states. So, who are we suppose to sell these 60 chocolate bars to? I don’t want chocolate laying around our house for too long, that is just dangerous. However, the good news is that I don’t really like the chocolate that Caiden is selling. If it was Godiva, Cadbury, Dove, or something dreamy like those chocolates, this mama would be in big trouble!
We live in an apartment in California. It’s a very safe neighborhood and the apartments are sort of like a little community. Caiden decided he wanted to go sell chocolate to some of the neighbors. I thought that was a great idea and was proud of him for being so eager. Chris and I explained to Caiden that he needed to use his manners, explain why he was selling the chocolate, and not to get discouraged if people didn’t want to buy it. Caiden went out and sold 27 chocolate bars the first day and he was only gone for maybe 20 minutes! He was beaming when he came inside to tell us all how well he had done. He went out 2 other times on 2 other days in our apartments and sold the rest of the chocolate.
I think this was a fantastic lesson for Caiden. He was so proud and confident about what he had accomplished. No one went out and did the fundraiser for him. He learned that hard work and never giving up pays off. I was shocked at how well he did and I couldn’t be more proud of what a little go getter he is. He raised $120 for his baseball league. I of course want Caiden to need me, because I’m his mommy, but I think it is so important for children to have some independence, decision making skills, and confidence. Without these qualities our kids are being set up to fail. I never knew such a great lesson could come out of a baseball fundraiser.
“Hot Sauce” and his fundraiser money.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about your children, independence or ways to boost a child’s self confidence.
Hugs,
K
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