Before the holidays...there was a thread about difficult children selling/trading their gifts...
Now here I am, with a situation that is almost like that.
A few years ago, difficult child was taking music lessons. She hated it. Hated practising. Complained all the time. So we stopped paying for lessons and stopped renting the instrument (a viola).
After lessons stopped, difficult child decided that she LOVED it - and we were mean for taking the lessons away. After she received some birthday money, she bought herself a student-quality viola and began playing in her spare time. OK - no problem.
This summer, she developed a crush on a guy who plays guitar - so difficult child decided that she must also have a guitar (even though she doesn't know how to play). husband gave her some advice on buying a nice guitar, but difficult child didn't listen to him...and instead she convinced a friend to give her an old rusty guitar that she was not using. Then difficult child was frustrated that the rusty guitar was not working well....so insisted on buying some new strings for it....which didn't work...so now she wants even better strings PLUS
she decided that the real problem is that she needs an electric guitar. So she's been trying to figure out how to buy an electric guitar for very little money.
THEN she decided she really needs an electric keyboard....and where can she get one of those for no money? And Mom and Dad are mean because we are not helping her find a keyboard.
Which brings us to Christmas - difficult child decided that what she wanted more than anything in the world was a violin.
Really? A violin? Well....I wasn't about to buy her a violin. She doesn't know how to play violin - and there are a lot of other things she needed first....a new winter coat, for example. But difficult child was insistent: violin. She told me she really wanted to learn to play violin and it goes so well with her viola and yadda, yadda, yadda - this re-kindled interest in string instruments seemed like such a positive thing...I decided that maybe this was a thing I should be supporting.
So I spent a pretty penny on a brand-new violin.
And here we are, less than two weeks after Christmas - and difficult child has announced that now that she has a violin...she can sell those other instruments..or better yet - trade for a used electric guitar...'cause that's really the instrument she wants - violin is just a hobby that she can teach herself...
and...oh by the way...she already has a deal made with this girl she barely knows at school...so she will be trading the viola and the old guitar tomorrow...but it's a really good deal...so...
I feel like SUCH an idiot.
I would not have bought the violin if I had realized that...a) she had no intention of actually persuing violin...and b) that she would use the new violin as a justification for trading in the viola (which is the only instrument she actually learned how to play)...
but husband feels that I am upset about nothing. If difficult child wants to sell her stuff - it's hers to sell.
I just feel like *I* am the one who got *played*. It's too soon for this to have been a random deal. I think the trade was arranged before Christmas...
Now here I am, with a situation that is almost like that.
A few years ago, difficult child was taking music lessons. She hated it. Hated practising. Complained all the time. So we stopped paying for lessons and stopped renting the instrument (a viola).
After lessons stopped, difficult child decided that she LOVED it - and we were mean for taking the lessons away. After she received some birthday money, she bought herself a student-quality viola and began playing in her spare time. OK - no problem.
This summer, she developed a crush on a guy who plays guitar - so difficult child decided that she must also have a guitar (even though she doesn't know how to play). husband gave her some advice on buying a nice guitar, but difficult child didn't listen to him...and instead she convinced a friend to give her an old rusty guitar that she was not using. Then difficult child was frustrated that the rusty guitar was not working well....so insisted on buying some new strings for it....which didn't work...so now she wants even better strings PLUS
she decided that the real problem is that she needs an electric guitar. So she's been trying to figure out how to buy an electric guitar for very little money.
THEN she decided she really needs an electric keyboard....and where can she get one of those for no money? And Mom and Dad are mean because we are not helping her find a keyboard.
Which brings us to Christmas - difficult child decided that what she wanted more than anything in the world was a violin.
Really? A violin? Well....I wasn't about to buy her a violin. She doesn't know how to play violin - and there are a lot of other things she needed first....a new winter coat, for example. But difficult child was insistent: violin. She told me she really wanted to learn to play violin and it goes so well with her viola and yadda, yadda, yadda - this re-kindled interest in string instruments seemed like such a positive thing...I decided that maybe this was a thing I should be supporting.
So I spent a pretty penny on a brand-new violin.
And here we are, less than two weeks after Christmas - and difficult child has announced that now that she has a violin...she can sell those other instruments..or better yet - trade for a used electric guitar...'cause that's really the instrument she wants - violin is just a hobby that she can teach herself...
and...oh by the way...she already has a deal made with this girl she barely knows at school...so she will be trading the viola and the old guitar tomorrow...but it's a really good deal...so...
I feel like SUCH an idiot.
I would not have bought the violin if I had realized that...a) she had no intention of actually persuing violin...and b) that she would use the new violin as a justification for trading in the viola (which is the only instrument she actually learned how to play)...
but husband feels that I am upset about nothing. If difficult child wants to sell her stuff - it's hers to sell.
I just feel like *I* am the one who got *played*. It's too soon for this to have been a random deal. I think the trade was arranged before Christmas...