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Swinging Is For Cheapskates
I bought the swing set anyway, but the discounts and gift certificates definitely helped.
My four-year-old son was in a daily afternoon special needs program. Reading the fine print about their business, I discovered a buried perk – any child who showed up every day for a month qualified for a $25 Toys R Us gift card for perfect attendance.
The odds of perfect participation slimmed significantly over the long winter months, but I charted his progress. He’d already decided he’d outgrown the Little Tykes slide and junior activity gym that his relatives had gifted him over the past two years. The goal was to shop for a more age-appropriate backyard playground facility.
That year was also challenging because our son suffered a series of alternating ear and sinus infections. Just as the antibiotics seemed to be working and knocked one out, here would come another, as if they were magnetized attracted to his system.
Against all odds, the boy managed a perfect December. In part, that was due to six days of holiday vacation at the end of the month. Nevertheless, when I mentioned it to the director, she smiled and said, “Let me document it.“ When my son returned to school in January, the teachers handed an envelope with the first certificate.
First, you say?
