American Girls

Santa brought an American Girl doll to my daughter for Christmas. The doll was ordered to look just like my daughter, and even came with a few similar accessories -- a karate gi and little violin. When my daughter asked, "Why doesn't she have more clothes like I do?" I thought to myself, "Because they're $28 an outfit, and I don't even spend that much on an outfit for you. And rarely for me." My husband, when he found out that little fact, said, "My God! That doll's going to bankrupt us!" Meanwhile, the American Girl catalogs keep showing up, wooing my daughter with the cute outfits and expensive accessories. Suddenly seeing my Santa's lack of foresight, I needed a plan to mitigate the possibility of bankruptcy and/or divorce.

I set up a system where my daughter earns a certain number of marbles for certain tasks. She gets two marbles, for example, for setting the table and five or six marbles for getting out the door on time in the morning (can you guess which task is the most difficult for her?). When a jar is full of marbles, she can choose an outfit for the look-alike doll.

On most levels, the system is working. She doesn't beg for outfits; she knows she needs to fill the marble jar. The semi-weekly catalogs are now a great incentive. It takes about two months to fill the jar, which works for us, her parents. And not least of all, we get out the door on time in the mornings these days with smiles on our faces and a minimum of shouting.

So this morning she filled her marble jar to the top, just before we headed off (on time!) to school. I told her that this afternoon we could go to the American Girl store and get something for the doll. What I didn't have the foresight to do was to eat lunch before I picked her up and headed for the land of little girl delights.

After wandering around slack-jawed for about 45 minutes, my daughter finally settled on a special doll chair she's had her eye on for the past month. At this point my stomach was rumbling and I was feeling a bit light headed, so we headed here to the adjacent American Girl bistro to get a bite. Suffice it to say, that like all things American Girl, the afternoon tea at the bistro was a bit painful to my pocketbook but an absolute delight to my daughter. I'm hoping, however, for the sake of my marriage, that next time the marble jar is filled, I can talk her into accepting her reward via mail order!