Little vultures

So Carter and I got back from some errands and the moment I set him down inside the house, there was a knock at the door. I should have known better than to answer it. I naively thought it might be UPS or FedEx and that I was lucky to have made it home just in time to greet them. Wrong. As I have already learned, a knock at the door THE MINUTE I get home means that there is a neighborhood child wanting to sell me something who has been watching for me to get home.

Don't start thinking I'm some sort of scrooge. I'm all about Girl Scout cookies and school fundraisers. What I'm not about is kids wanting to wash my car or sell me Chip Ahoy cookies right from the bag just because they want some money. Such was the case today. The repeat offender showed up asking if he could rake my leaves. I told him honestly that I didn't know if I even had any money to pay him and I asked him to give me like 15 minutes to get Carter fed and see if I have any money. He agreed and as he left, I saw the whole handful of leaves on our lawn. OK - we don't need help raking those up.

I fed Carter and with no further knock at the door, we proceeded to bath time. As I got Carter out of the tub and to his room for a diaper, I heard a knock. There was no way I was going to rush down to answer it so, I got Carter into his PJs during which time the knocks continued and got LOUDER.

I finally took Carter to the door to find that he had raked the few leave in our yard. I told him I was surprised he had raked them given our discussion to which he replied, "you can pay me tomorrow."

HOW SLICK IS THAT?

I wonder if their parents have any idea that they do this...

I asked him to wait as I ran through the house looking for spare change. Since we recently put it all in a piggy bank that requires braking it to get to it, I was left with about $1.04 from my purse, car and random dish in the office.

I went out and handed it to him.

To be honest, he did about $1.04 worth of work. That said, I'm sure he expected $5. Maybe he'll learn a lesson from this.... don't do the work before being told you'll be paid.... or, quite messing with the newest neighbors - they're on to us!