Beijing, Day 2 – My Children are NOT good negotiators!

This is my 10 year old. When she was born we almost tossed her back we were so surprised by the red hair! I never in a million years considered I would have a red head, and was stunned when I saw her with her full head of bright red hair! But I LOVED her immediately and fell in love with red heads! Sadly as she gets older her red hair is fading into strawberry blond and gets lighter and lighter every year.

My other kids affectionately call her “Ginger” which has become her nick name. I know that sometimes it is a negative name for red heads, but the way they say it to her is so endearing that I don’t care. BTW, I also have a 6 year old red head, when she was born nothing was a surprise anymore!

Let me give you one piece of advice: If you visit a foreign place where all the people have black hair, TAKE A RED HEAD WITH YOU! We couldn’t walk 10 feet without someone taking a picture of her today! Then the kids were getting slap happy from lack of sleep, and starting just stopping and posing with her in front of the people just blatantly taking a picture of my kid. It was fun for her and a good laugh for us!

Since my Dad is still in the states for a few more days, my Mom took us shopping so that he could come with us to the BIG tourist sites. We spent the day shopping and walking around the old city. These streets and buildings are 600 years old. It is unbelievably beautiful.

This persons home was built right in with all the stores. They had a small tomato garden with pretty green tomatoes. For as little precipitation as they get everything is VERY green.

I might be slowly starving to death however. Please send food.

I thought I was fairly adventuresome with food. However, I have decided that I am not, and have consisted on some fried rice and fruit for the past few days. I will post pictures later and you can decide if you would eat or not 🙂

This kid is freaking hilarious. If he skips college and runs off to be a stand up comedian I might not sweat it. He is seriously struggling in the negotiation department and so comedian might be a better fit then corporate litigation or chief negotiator.

We gave each of our kids some spending money {which I will be posting about later in the week as that was hilarious} to add to what they have saved and brought. My husband exchanged it for Chinese RMB. So 100 RMB is about $17 or around there.

Chinese parents don’t like their kids negotiating prices with people. We shoved our kids in there just after giving them a few lessons and letting them watch us, to experience it themselves while we helped them. Apparently confidence won over Tucker and he headed off on his own. He comes back with a stuffed panda bear and 3 plastic bracelets.

“Did you just buy those” I ask.

“Yep” he says.

“For you?” I teased.

“Um yeah. I like teddy bears and pink bracelets” he answers.

Then his sister starts ratting him out.

“Mom you wouldn’t believe this lady, we only wanted 2 bracelets but she wouldn’t let us leave until we got 3. But that is ok, since now all the little girls will have one!”

“How much did you spend?” I ask.

“Only 100 RMB” he says proudly!

What the hell? I yell at him, “Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah?” he says.

“Do you know that is $17 dollars???!!!”

“These bracelets are $12 each at home Mom. It is high quality plastic and came all the way from China. Wait. We are in China. OK, well, how often do you see stuffed panda bears at home Mom? Huh? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Like HARDLY ever! O.K. fine! She was a scary mean Chinese woman and wouldn’t let us leave! She started at 150 RMB and I talked her down to 100!!!!”

“Nice son. Seriously. Don’t spend any money again unless we are with you.” I tell him, shaking my head knowing that in someones home tonight a Chinese woman will be telling her friends about a ‘stupid American boy’!

Fast forward 20 minutes:

“Mom can I have some watermelon?” Tucker asks.

“Yes it is 1 RMB, can you handle that?” I tease him.

He walks over about 100 feet away and I can see him buying the watermelon.

He comes back and hands me 7 RMB. “I gave you 10 RMB, where is the rest?” I say

“Well see Mom. Apparently I paid the nice Chinese man 1 RMB for the melon and 2 more RMB for helping me organize my money.” He says.

“What the hell?”

“Ok, so I hand him the 10RMB and he hands me back 9 RMB, then before I can put it away he takes it from my hand, rearranges it and takes 2 RMB out and sticks it in his pocket.” Tucker explains.

“So you just let him steal 2 RMB from you?”

“I prefer to call it payment for his consultation services on how to arrange my money.” Tucker tells me.

He is not allowed to buy anything else unless “Ginger” or his other little sister is with him. They have master the art negotiation and proudly bought 2 darling Coach pink knockoff purses for $8 each. Less then 1/2 of what he paid for a stuffed panda bear and 3 plastic bracelets!