Parental Guilt (AKA: The Art of Parent/Child Negotiations)

I have 2 young children and recently had another all-the-more-frequent-experience of dashing their hopes against the suburban rocks.

 My son’s latest life phase is Minecraft, which compared to most other popular games is harmless.  However, when he set his mind on going to Minecon 2013 in Orlando, FL this November, we had to come to terms.  The cost of the tickets, airfare, hotel, auto-rental, etc. would have all been well over $1,000.00, and it’s likely he would have to miss some school, and I would have to take some time off work.  To make matters worse, they only sold 7,500 tickets, and the event was sold out within 30sec!  Determined as he is, he found tickets on eBay, the least expensive of which were $500.00.  I had to say, “no”.  He’s now been working me for days.  “It would make me SO happy.”  “You don’t care how I feel.”  “It’s only the biggest event of my life”.  “We spend money like that on other things like patio furniture!”

At about that same time, my daughter and I went on a neighborhood stroll during which we saw a single purple petunia growing out of the crack between the sidewalk and someone’s front yard.  She HAD to have it.  I told her that it wasn’t ours to take and that she couldn’t pick it.  She began a pleading tirade that lasted the rest of our walk.  “They didn’t plant it.” “They won’t mind.” “It would make Mommy and me SO happy.” “You don’t care how I feel.” “I will remember this the rest of my life!”
I stuck to principal on both accounts and said, “no”.  I don’t like to see my children unhappy.  They really got me thinking and almost had me.  Have I no sense of adventure?  Am I a stick-in-the-mud?  Should I just be spontaneous and “go for it”?  In both cases, I didn’t flinch and showed no signs that I might soon relent.  Needless to say, though I still think I made the right call, I’m the least popular person in the house right now and have a serious case of “parental guilt”.