Buyers' remorse

Last night, Mallory woke up about an hour after we put her to bed, positively wailing. (It's possible she hadn't yet fallen asleep. Nonetheless - the wailing.) Chad went in after her to find out what was wrong and finally elicited this response: she had chosen the wrong school lunch bag. She regretted having chosen the lavender bag with horses on it. She wanted the pink bag with black cats after all.

I was like, are you freaking kidding me? I couldn't believe that she even remembered the pink bag with black cats was there, because at the time, she'd only had eyes for the lavender bag with horses. Actually, scratch that. She really only had eyes for the backpack she had been ogling all summer, and to be honest, I was a little surprised that she had chosen the one she did. The first backpack she liked was Disney princesses, and it was only partway through the summer that she started batting for team Barbie princesses (on the shelf right beside it) instead - a subtle yet tangible change that shows she is growing up. If anything, I thought she might regret not having chosen the Disney princesses. The lunch bag was merely an afterthought... or so I thought.

I debated this long and hard. I don't want her growing up spoiled and getting everything she wants. Sometimes you make a decision in life and you're stuck with the consequences. But... this would be something relatively easy to fix. If it is keeping her up at night thinking about it, maybe it's worth fixing.

I called the store and sure enough, they still had the pink bag with black cats. The gracious owner agreed to take back the horse bag in exchange for the cat bag. When I collected the kids from Cindy's house tonight, Mallory spotted the horse bag sitting on the front seat of the car and looked glum. But when I asked her if she wanted to go down to the store and ask the owner if she would please trade bags, she was thrilled. We squeaked in right before the store closed, and the owner had set the new bag aside for us. Mallory was tickled. She fell asleep on the drive home, clutching the new bag to her chest.

Another crisis averted. Now let's just hope she doesn't change her mind about the backpack. She's spent the past few weeks loading it up with her treasures and taking it to Cindy's to show off to her friends. We can no longer consider it in new condition... it's definitely not going back.