Thankfully he seems to have settled for a 58 plate Ford Focus which will slash the cost of his insurance, tax and petrol. OK, we are going to have to stump up some cash as he has negative equity on his last car's finance and he'll be putting himself into a further five years debt, but it could have been so much worse!
Every since he was a baby, Joe has wanted things. He'd be the child who'd see adverts on TV and would want whatever the latest must have thing was so badly, he'd be convinced that his life would be somehow substandard otherwise. When he was about 3, Bucky O'Hare was the latest TV show and the toy action figures were all the rage. I bought a Bucky (who was an astronaut rabbit thing!) for Joe. He was content for 2 seconds. He then needed a baddie to fight against. Stupidly I complied. Then he needed the trusty side-kick and the other crew members...then of course he needed the space ship and the vehicles. I don't know whether because I was a teenage single parent that I felt the need to try to please my little boy. Or maybe some kids are just like that? I really don't know, but before I knew it, I'd bought the whole range and Joe got bored with them and no longer played with any of it! The same happened with Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Biker Mice from Mars.
Then came the advent of video games consoles. Then designer sports clothes. The computers! By this time though I was older and wiser and was not about to indulge all his desires! But he could still wrap me round his little finger and weaken my resolve sometimes. None of the other kids have had the "I Want" gene, thank goodness!
So when Joe wanted to get a new car and started to mention Audi A4s, I felt a pang of panic, thinking of a salesman getting Joe to sign himself up to a huge debt added to by extortionate insurance! So I was so relieved when I realised he wasn't serious. His actual choice of car proves that the lessons me and his dad have drummed into him over the last few years have actually sunk in. He is thinking sensibly about his future and his finances, rather than desperately wanting the car he desires at any cost. That makes me very proud. My son is no longer the boy who wants every Bucky O'Hare toy...he is at last a responsible adult!
#NaBloPoMo Day 12
