How bad did she want to go?

I was in Atlanta this week, again, for work.  Before I left, I noticed something in email about a trip to Italy, run by some history teachers at Norah's school.  Nothing about dates, details, cost etc. but there was a parents meeting, on the night I was away.  Matt was busy carting Roddie around, plus he was not feeling well, so Norah decided to log in, as me (she told me she was going it at least)

Poor Matt got home, Norah drops the news on him that she wanted to go to Italy, it would be $4,000 and she needed to know by 7a the next day!  (it was 7p, but that detail was lost in the noise....)    As you can probably guess, Matt did not take this news (nor its delivery and urgency) very well, and some chaos ensued.  By which I mean they both started texting me from different rooms in the house.  

So, after ignoring them both for a while, I agreed with Matt that it needed to be a discussion, and that it wasn't going to happen until I got home, and she'd just have to wait.  We later agreed that while we'd love for her to go, it was a lot of money for a whim, and we would have to see just how bad she wanted to go.

I picked her up from her job at the ball fields, and broached the subject by asking how badly she wanted to go - as in $$$!  She offered up right away that she'd cover her spending money and the meals that were not included in the trip (good for her!)  I countered with, "Dad and I were thinking more like half"  (she has plenty of time to earn/save $2K)  Anyway, she thought about it for about 30 seconds before deciding she did not want to go bad enough to spend the next 8 months working towards that particular goal.   She agreed she could if she made that choice, but that's not what she wants to do.

Glad we didn't just agree outright!  Lesson learned on all sides!

S