Your 10 year old child calls from a friend's house and asks permission to go to the mall with the friend and friend's mom. You agree, and you drive over to give your child a $20.00 bill. (For the sake of argument, this amount of money is very rarely at your child's disposal at once). You remind your child in front of the mom (a nice mom, but not one of your closer friends) that this is a generous amount.

Then the mom takes your child and her own child shopping, and somehow your child comes home with $30.00 worth of merchandise... TEN more than what you had given out...(you see the receipts...your child admits they spent above and beyond what you had given your child).

You have a long talk with your child about expectations for future spending sprees (one you may be should have had before, but you didn't expect this mall thing to come up).

Question: are you also a little miffed at the mom? If so, how do you handle it? Do you refund the mom the $10? Do you have your child do it? Are you grateful, or are you feeling a little undermined? Do you confront the mom, and if so, how?

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell