Expensive Lesson

My daughter Hannah got a Gameboy DS for Christmas. She was very excited, as it was exactly what she wanted. It is the Nintendogs version, and is pink pearl She loves it. Recently, she's been taking it to school. I've told her time and again that she shouldn't take it to school, as it would be an easy target for a wouldbe thief. She disagreed. Plus, several of her friends have them too, and sometimes, they use the Pictochat program to send messages back and forth at resess, etc.

Today, she learned an expensive lesson. She usually keeps the Gameboy zipped up in her coat pocket. Well, I guess her jacket fell off the hook and someone stepped on her coat. CRACK! Yes, you guessed it. The top screen on her dual-screen Gameboy is now cracked and not useable. She was devastated, but then realized that the bottom screen was still OK. She at least saw the bright side, but understood she made a big mistake by taking it to school. She said time and again that she wished she could go back in time to make a better decision.

So, I called Nintendo to see if it could be repaired. The good news, yes, it can be repaired, for $50. That's not too bad, and we're going to get it fixed. But, it was made very clear to Hannah that she'll be paying for it. Unfortuanately, she just spent her entire allowance for a new game for the Gameboy, so she doesn't have any money. She agreed to surrender her allowance for the next 10 weeks (yikes, that's a long time for a kid) to pay for the repair.

To me, $50 is really nothing at all. But, i think we still need to teach Hannah a lesson, that she's responsible for her things, and if they break, she'll have to pay to fix them. I feel bad for her, but at the same time, know that she needs to understand that Dad won't always be there to bail her out. Hopefully, she'll also become more responsible with her expensive toys. And, she's not taking it to school ever again!