The Negotiator

This evening, Annabelle had a softball game that ran until 7pm. In the name of not spending the time to cook and feed the kids when we got home, I told them we were going to stop to pick something up for them to eat on the way home. I gave them the options of Burger King or Chick-fil-A. Corgan picked Chick-fil-A and Annabelle picked BK. I told them they had to talk to each other and decide on which place. And the negotiations began...

Annabelle: "Corgan, can we go to Burger King?"
Corgan: "No, I want Chick-fil-A."
Annabelle: "Corgan, what if I give you all of my money? Then can we go to Burger King?" (Note: Annabelle has a change purse FULL of coins that she keeps hidden in her room as "her money".)
Corgan: "Okay. We can go to Burger King."
Annabelle: "Alright. I'll give you 10 coins as soon as we get home. How about I put 5 of them in your monkey bank and you put 5 in it?"
Corgan: "Okay."
Annabelle: "No wait... I have an idea! You can put THREE of them in and I'll only get to put 2 in. Does that sound good?"
Corgan: "3 + 2 is 5. (Thinks for a second...) Okay."

When we got home, Annabelle did exactly what she said... she gave him 3 coins (a penny, a foreign coin, and a dime) to put in his bank, while she put 2 coins in there herself. Quite a stretch from her original promise of "all of my money".

If you ask my sister, she'll tell you that Annabelle is taking after me in the "negotiating skills" department. When we were little, I used to pay my sister to clean my part of the room. One day, she told me that 2 quarters just wasn't enough and she was going to have to up her fee. Then she agreed to continue doing it for a half-dollar coin. :) I don't know exactly how old I was when I tricked her and negotiated that fee, but I'm pretty sure that I was much older than barely 5 years old!

4 comments:

ljkolumbus said...

yes, Annabelle does have your negotiation skills :)

Keith Donald said...

Sounds more like a swindler! :)

LynnMach said...

Great story :)

Kelly Albert said...

Yea Yea.. you stumped me! Too funny- Annabelle is SOOO much like you!