Isaac's job

Isaac got a job umpiring under-11 softball games at the local softball facility. The other umpires and the umpiring coordinator have been incredible mentors for him. Every Saturday he shows up at the softball clubhouse, which is situated amidst about 10 diamonds, at 9:30 and goes through some training, and the game he umps starts at 10:30. He gets paid $10 to be a line ump and $15 to be a plate ump. He advanced to plate ump after two games, and today he got to line ump an under-15 game.

I'm blogging about this for two reasons. First, I love seeing how responsible and focused he is for an entire hour and a half while working. I don't find him doing this very often without a computer. He takes it really seriously, makes his calls loudly, and has pity on the really little kids who can't even control the bat.

Checking his clicker for balls and strikes

I also love that he's earning money and making decisions about what to do with it. After his first game, he walked back down from the clubhouse to meet me, and he was eating a sausage in bread.  They often have sausage sizzles at games to raise money, but I didn't think he had any money. I asked him where he got the sausage, and he said proudly, "I bought it!"

We've had ongoing issues with making Isaac realize that money doesn't have to be spent the first minute he has it. He went on an excursion with school to a place called Sovereign Hill. Everyone he talked to about the place said, "you have to buy these lollies - they are the best!" I gave him $20 for spending money and he spent every cent on candy - fudge, the special lollies - and then  . . . forgot about all of them. The lollies melted in the cupboard and I ended up throwing them away before our move to our new house.  More recently he went on a five-day camp to Canberra. He was allowed to take $50 to buy souvenirs etc. He said to me, "If you give me $30, I'll bring $10 of my own money."  He spent it all, but the souvenirs were nicer and he got a present for Ruth, too.

He has about $80 cash saved up now. I offered to put it in the bank for him but he said he wants to keep it liquid. "Why?" I asked. To buy stuff at the tuck shop if he wants something. But he doesn't want to buy things at the tuck shop every day anymore. He's realizing that the $6.50 lunch item he buys doesn't fill him up, and if he has to pay for it, he thinks about things like this.  This lesson makes all the schlepping to his games worth the time.