Lesson Learned . . . OR WAS IT?

Well, we spent the weekend without eldest child.  He was unceremoniously dumped at grandparents to get moving, earn some money to pay for the broken cell phone in previous post, and hopefully learn a valuable lesson in the process. 

As we pulled out of the driveway, we could see him, shovel in hand, gazing at the 10 yards of mulch that he had approximately 48 hours to move and spread to the liking of Maternal Grandparents.  Like 2 giggling school-children, Mr. P and I couldn't have been happier. Comments flew - Laughter erupted -  Celebrations transpired . . . "That'll teach him", "He'll sleep well tonight . . . if he doesn't hurt too much", "Hee, hee, hee, hee", "It's going to take him forever", more"Hee, hee, hee, hee", "Maybe he'll finally learn how hard you need to work to make a little money."

OH, HOW WRONG WE WERE!  You see, Mimi and Papa love their grandchildren - and when I use the term love, it can actually be used interchangeably with any of the following:  cherish, treasure, dote on, are smitten with, hold dear, and/or COMPLETELY SPOIL!  

Eldest child's weekend of learning lessons went a little something like this.  

Yes, he did shovel, rake, spread and move mulch for much of the 48 hours.  

However, not only did he get paid a VERY healthy sum for this job, but when rake was not in hand, he was treated to the following. . .    

1. A trip to the Verizon store to get aforementioned cell phone fixed 

Not only did Eldest child get phone fixed - it was replaced - FREE OF CHARGE, he also acquired a new drop/shatterproof shield for said cell phone -  AGAIN, FREE OF CHARGE! Because he might drop the phone, even with the shatterproof case, his lovely grandmother thought he needed a hip holster and purchased that for him too.

2. Dinner at a new steakhouse - Please Note:  This is eldest child's favorite meal

3. Subway Sandwiches for Lunch - Also a favorite

4.  A trip to the bookstore for a few books he's been looking to purchase (Yes, lovely grandmother purchased these too!)

5.  A trip to Cold Stone Ice Cream with dear old granddad

6. And to top it all off - we later discovered that Maternal Grandparents actually helped the child with the mulch.  (In his defense, he did most of the work and all of the HARD work, but still . . . )

When confronted with the fact that this was done to teach eldest child a lesson, Maternal Grandparents seemed to suddenly lose the ability to communicate in any language, including English, and any and all comments regarding our angst were completely ignored.  

It comes to mind that somewhere in our past, Mr. P and I have been told that apparently grandparents really just don't need to follow the rules, can pretty much do what they want with the grandchildren and then once they have been completely spoiled, coddled and reprogrammed to be void of any and all lessons mom and dad have painstakingly taught, returned to rightful owners.  

So, the question is . . . Was the lesson learned?   

I give that question a resounding YES!   

 "How could a lesson be learned?"  You ask .  . .    

Simply put, Mr. P and I have finally learned, that next time Maternal Grandparents need something done, we will happily move in with them for a weekend of a little work and lot of ultimate spoilage and leave eldest child home to parent youngest child and maybe, just maybe, he'll learn how hard life can really be.