The e-mails have started.

They are coming in daily.

They are detailed.

They have links and graphics and all different fonts. They tug at the heartstrings and appeal to my emotions and innate need to buy. They have a begging, pleading tone — imploring me to buy, buy, buy.

The e-mails are coming not from an online retailer or store catalog. In fact, they’re not coming from any nameless faceless impersonal entity.

They’re coming from my own flesh and blood. From my almost-11-year-old son, my first born who, for better or for worse, is so much like me in so many ways.

It all started when we took a 10-hour car trip to South Carolina for the wedding of one of my closest college friends. We stuffed the two kids in the back, one in each row of the SUV, and prayed we wouldn’t hear much from either of them for the duration of the trip.

On the way out of the house, we grabbed a fistful of DVDs for the kids. My daughter fell asleep before we even hit the highway and stayed asleep for most of the trip. Little did I know that my son,  my night owl, all the way  in the back, chose “The Secret” as his DVD of choice and that he would watch it not one, not two, but THREE FULL TIMES during the trip.

And that was just the beginning. I’ll tell you more in my next post.

Filed under: kids