Making Her Case

My girls, particularly Brita, seem to be interested in turning our home into a pet residence. I think we've made it clear that one dog (and a big one at that) invading our territory is as far as we're going to go, but she's persistent. And her sister is pretty good at following her lead.

Our kids' most recent request came after Brita's class gerbil died and shortly thereafter it was replaced with a hamster. The class got to name the hamster and Brita was disappointed that the name she liked wasn't the one that was chosen. Jimzer won. Surprised? Didn't think so.

Anyway, she's been hounding us ever since to get a hamster. I think it's mostly so she can give it a cute name.

She and Leah have been trying to prove to us that they are very responsible. Buddy is actually getting fed with only occasional reminders these days and they're actually being pretty good about keeping up on their summer jobs. It's been pretty nice not fighting them tooth and nail on everything. But every few days we keep having conversations that go like this:

Kid: Mom, haven't we been responsible lately?

Me: Yes and I love it.

Kid: Can we get a hamster?

Me: Nice try. No.

This conversation comes at the most unexpected moments, as well as all the predictable ones. Leah was at a friend's house yesterday and they came to our house for a total of two seconds in the middle of their play date so she we could have the conversation.

On one of Brita's talkative days (the days when my brain starts swimming in mush because there is literally non-stop talking all day long), every time there was a lull in our conversation she'd say, "Can I have a hamster?" At first the request was tolerable, then turned to annoying, then finally funny. When I laughed she said, "What?! Every time my mind rests all I can think about is a hamster!"

After a few weeks of constant "No's", both the girls stopped asking every two minutes. I think we even had a period of a day or two when they never asked.

Just when I thought the obsession had died down, I walked past a white board that we have near the entrance to the garage and saw this...

She's a persuasive one, and this almost makes me want to cave. But we're standing firm. Can't wait to see what comes next in this case she's making.