Bear loves to play Eurotruck. I sort of half watch over his shoulder as he trundles his truck along from Iceland to Poland, down to Romania and across to Portugal. He finds it soothing, and along the way has learned the relative positions of the countries of Europe and their major cities. As the parts of the game are sometimes divided by country, he also knows whether, for example, Liege is in France or Belgium (it's in Belgium, I had to look it up).
Bear has a comparatively inexpensive steering wheel and pedal set that plugs into the PC but told me that his experience would be greatly enhanced by an H-stick gear. I asked him to translate and as far as I can see it's a sort of gear stick that also plugs into the PC. I asked him how much it was. Bear was evasive.
I had a look on eBay and Amazon and flinched. The only thing that nearly fit bear's description was over £100 at the cheapest. apparently unavailable second hand and would still need to be used with a different type of rig which would bring the cost to over £200. I could more or less almost possibly consider that amount for something like a tablet that he needed for school work, or perhaps a reconditioned phone to play his favourite games, but not a gaming accessory, not at 10 years old. I suggested that he had a good think about it, and as he had a lot of pocket money saved up then perhaps he could pay for it himself.
Bear does have a lot of pocket money saved, and one of the reasons he has a lot saved is because he strenuously resists spending it. He thought about it for a few days and then told me that regretfully he couldn't justify getting a gear stick as it looked very complicated and he probably wouldn't get the benefit. I was unsurprised.
He is willing to spend his own money on Lego, however. I did try him with a large Block Tech set, which looks like Lego, is apparently Lego compatible, but is a lot less expensive, especially when the sets are half price in the Tesco toy sale. I got a couple of absolute bargains, stashed one and passed the other to bear to see if he could trade down.
Bear gave the whole matter a lot of thought and decided that he would rather have less Lego than more Bloch Tech. Apparently Block Tech just don't reach Lego's standards. Some things, he said, are worth paying a little more for, even if it's with his own money.
Mind you, Parents' Evening is next week. Bear will expect a reward for a good report. He didn't get a good enough report last year, so he will be on pins seeing if this year he gets a treat. If he does earn a treat, I have a good idea what he'll ask for!
You know it is something he really wants if he's willing to spend his own money on it. At least, that's how it worked with my daughter. Sometimes, I'd negotiate with her - I'll tell her how much I was willing to pay (usually the cost of the less expensive alternative, which she didn't want) and it was up to her to decide if she'll get the less expensive item or pay the difference between that and what she wanted with her money.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I love how he decided not to buy it because it wasn't worth spending his money on. Now my kids are older it always makes me laugh how frugal they are about certain things now it's their money they are spending!
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