Win Some, Lose Some

When my youngest son Jesse was five years old, he went to summer camp every day until noon at the JCC in Skokie.  This is where he first learned about Slurpees.

There was a 7-Eleven a block from the camp, and a couple of his new friends told him about the icy sweet goodness and the brain freeze.  One Friday afternoon, he asked if we could try one.  Since my older son didn't come home from camp til 3:00, the two of us made our way over.  Across the front of the store, a large banner advertised a $20 million dollar Lotto prize.  My son asked me about it.

While we checked out the Slurpee flavors and selected which enormous sized cup to fill, I explained the Illinois Lottery.  I told him about picking the numbers and the chance to win the big prize.  He asked me if we could play and so we did.  We decided on our numbers and the clerk printed our ticket.  We paid our dollar and walked out of the store.  As we headed back to our car, my young son asked me, "Mom, if we win the $20 million dollars, who are we going to give it to?"

I was overcome at the generosity of this small boy.  I asked him who he might like to help with the money.   That weekend I chaired a fundraiser at our synagogue, and I told this story.  I spoke about modeling charitable giving for our children, and the impact that it had.  I raised several thousand dollars from a speech featuring my son's innocent words.

I was pretty impressed with myself.  Forget the $20 million, I had won the Mothering Jackpot!  Clearly I was doing something right.

Of course my older son heard about the 7-Eleven experience, and what is good for the goose is good for his brother.  On Monday afternoon it was time for his Slurpee/Lotto experience.  We got our Slurpees, picked our numbers and paid our money.  On the way out of the store, I turned to my child and saw him gazing at the lottery ticket.  I knew he was dreaming about what would happen if we won.

Sure enough, he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, "Mom, if we win the $20 million, do we have to share it with Jesse and Dad?"