My first grader’s classroom has a color-coded rating system for behavior.  Each day, the kids start off with green.  As the day progresses, depending on their behavior, individuals can be demoted down to yellow, orange, red, or the dreaded purple (which results in a trip to the principal’s office).  My daughter is a green kind of girl, but she has occasionally been known to receive a yellow for not listening when she should be.

Today, she came out of school and announced that she had all greens so far this month — “Ten in a row!”  It’s not terribly unusual for her, but it was a goal that she had set for herself, and she’s all about achieving her goals.

“I want a prize!” she demanded.

“Hmm, let’s see. How about we go out to eat to celebrate?” (I hadn’t intended to cook dinner tonight anyway.)

“Yes! Let’s go to that restaurant where they have the live lobsters in the tank. I want crab!”

“Um, I was thinking more along the lines of Chinese food.”

This usually gets a big cheer from both my girls, who are known to opt for Chinese food or Thai food over hamburgers or chicken nuggets.

Instead, my first grader began whining, and her little sister followed suit… “You never take us to the lobster restaurant! Yeah, we want lobster and crab!  It’s been a year since you took us out to the lobster place!”

I offered several alternative suggestions, and we finally ended up at McDonald’s.  They didn’t go for the food though.  It was the playland that they were after.