Thursday, December 02, 2004

Kids bricolage to economics

I have these 3 nieces and 2 nephews at home. They are cute and they fight all the time. One day I was going to take shower. Pachi saw me and asked me to lift her up. So I invented this new tool to lift kids around. I used my towel (don't worry, it's clean) as a hammock-like seat; my hands being the trees. She sat in and I carried her around in the house for 3 minutes. Well, not really 3 minutes, because Aisya, Fadhl, and Figo started to demand their rights, too (the 1 year old Dzakira had no idea what was going on). That morning I ended up carrying 4 kids around, one at a time. Muscle ached a little, arrived office in rush. Later when I came home I was welcomed by this cute riot once again.

So, it's time for economics. I gave them 5 pieces of card-sized paper each. Each paper is worth one ride with me, in the morning. For night ride, they should return 2 papers. I slowly explained them the idea. Aisya dan Pachi got it straight. Fadhl and Figo, the youngers had hard time, but slowly understood by way of example. I added, they should live with the 5 papers they each have for one week.

The next morning, Pachi "bought" 2 morning-rides from me. Then, she realized, she only had 3 left. She approached her brother Fadhl. She told him she had chocolate bar, and how about she gave it to Fadhl for 1 "ticket". Fadhl refused, but the cousin Figo accepted her offer. Market works. -- Ehm, not quite so. The next next morning, Fadhl lost one of his tickets. And Pachi somehow had an extra ticket...

Today they all demand their next batch of tickets...

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