The Good Old Days

September 2008 (Lessons)

Adam was still in a dark place, though from time to time he still had good days. Today was one of those days. At least it was till he got a certain email.

"Nine hundred dollars!?" He exclaimed as he read over a confirmation email from Acorn, "ALL on POP SONGS!?"

It was all charged to his credit card, so he was starting to assume his info had been stolen somehow. Then he saw a username associated with the purchase. BushyTail01. That was definitely Lily.

Adam sighed and printed off the email. It looked like he was gonna have to sit her down. He had never raised his voice at her, and despite how mad he was, he wasn't gonna start now.

"Lily," Adam said, poking his head out of the office. She was sitting on the couch watching cartoons, "Can you come here?"

"Daddyyyyy, my favorite show is about to start!" She whined.

"Lily, now," he said sternly, "I just need to talk to you."

"Fiiiiiiiiiine..." Like groaned as she hopped off the couch and walked into his office.

"Sit in Daddy's chair," he pointed.

Once she was sat down, he handed the printed off email to her.

"What's this?" Lily asked.

"Those are the songs you bought," Adam said, "Lily, did you find my plastic card and use it?"

"No!" Lily quickly denied.

"Lily," he sighed, "It's under BushyTail01... That's you. You know better than to lie."

"I'm not!" She yelled, clearly getting upset.

"Lily, tell the truth," Adam said, kneeling down to be eye level with her, "I won't be mad, I just want you to be honest. Did you know that they would tell me about it?"

Lily just dropped her head and shook it.

"So you did buy all these songs?"

She nodded.

"Now Lily," he continued, "I know you didn't know, but this is a lot of money. If you wanted some songs, all you had to do was ask... But no girl has any need for nearly a thousand of them.

"I do," Lily said innocently, "For my iPawd! Didn't you need songs for your iPawd???"

"When I was a kid, we didn't have iPawds," Adam said.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!?" Lily said in disbelief, "No way..."

"Yes way," Adam said, "We had to use CDs and radios only... Now back on topic... You can't be getting into Daddy's wallet without permission. That's wrong."

"Sorry, Daddy..." Lily apologized. She sounded like she was about to cry, now that she realized he was stuck on this issue.

"Lily, it's okay," he said, "Well, it's not, don't do it again... But you didn't know. I just need you to listen, because there's some things you need to know about money."

Lily sniffed and looked up, giving Adam her attention.

"Now," Adam said, "This was a lot of money you spent. Mommy and Daddy only make so much money a month to pay for everything, including food and things for you as well as our bills."

"Bills?" Lily asked curiously.

"They let us keep all our stuff," Adam said, "Like the house, car, electric, and internet."

"Ohhhh..." Lily said, beginning to fidget with her tail.

Adam continued on, explaining how they were on a certain budget each month, and about how money was a limited thing, but Lily was quickly losing interest.

"Lily," he said, watching her head moving in a circle as she looked up at the ceiling, "Are you listening?"

"I'm following that one part of the fan," she said, staring up at the ceiling fan, "Just the one blade."

"What I'm saying is important," he told her, "Please pay attention."

Lily shifted her focus back to him and did her best to concentrate.

An hour went by, and Adam was just wrapping up his lecture.

"And that's why budgeting, investing, tracking your spending, and making your payments on time to build a reliable credit score is important," he said, "You get all that?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded, "Can I go back out and watch cartoons now?"

Adam sighed, pretty sure everything he had told her in the last hour had gone in one ear and right back out the other.

"Yeah, go ahead," he said.

"Yay!" She said excitedly, giving him a hug, "I love you, Daddy."

Adam kissed her forehead, "I love you too, Bushy Tail."

"What was that all about?" Daisy asked, walking in from the kitchen, "I heard you two talking for like an hour. What's that?"

She took the email from him and read it without warning.

"Nine hundr-Mmf!" Adam quickly covered her mouth and pulled her into the office and shut the door.

She pulled his hand off her mouth, "Nine hundred dollars on POP songs!? You don't even like pop! What happened!?"

"It was... Uhhh... For Lily!" Adam laughed awkwardly, "Think how quiet she'll be in the car now..."

Daisy just gave him a 'yeah, right' look.

"Okay, okay..." Adam sighed, "Lily found my credit card and did it... But don't worry! She knows all the ins and outs of financial management now! It won't happen again."

"Adam," Daisy said flatly, "She's barely seven. Do you really think that worked?"

"I don't have it in my heart to yell at her..." Adam said, "Don't worry, it won't happen again. I'll call Acorn tomorrow and see if I can get the transaction reversed."

"You're much kinder than most fathers would be right now," Daisy laughed, "My dad would have whipped me to next week if I spent that much money."

"Well, you were a trouble maker," he teased, "Must be where Lily gets it."

Daisy just gave him a playful shove before they both went back out to the living room.