1 Tweet = $55

Tweeting has its rewards.  It's not just a way to let all your followers know what you are having for breakfast.

Couple of weeks ago, our family of 4 went on a weekend trip to Philadelphia to see some historical sites and visit the Franklin Institute.  As the mom, I'm the vacation-planner and the reservation-maker.  And, as a mom with a full-time job outside of the house, I don't always have time to search high and low for the best deals.  I saw that the Hyatt at Penn's Landing has a pool and it's pretty close to all the attractions that we are interested in visiting, I called the reservation number listed on the website and booked 2 nights for 2 adults and 2 kids.  All went well.  The agent was nice and accommodating.

Two days before the trip, I went back onto the Hyatt at Penn's Landing website just to familiarize myself with directions and the facility.  That's when I saw the package deals.  If I pay $10 more for each night, we get free parking ($30/night), free in room movies (~$15/night), passes to the ice-skating rink near the hotel, and Gold card to Dave & Busters near the hotel.  So, I picked up the phone, call the reservation number again.  I ask them can I add the extra $10 a night so I can have the package deal.  "No, you paid for the non-refundable rate.  Sorry."  Crap.

So, I took to the twittersphere.

I'm not a twitter big shot.  I have about 170 followers at that time and I think I only know about 20 of them.   But, I tweeted

I didn't get any reply.  I figured I will have to try to convince the front desk when I check in to let me upgrade to the package.

So, Friday afternoon, we drove from NYC to Philly after I got off from work.  I walked into to the hotel lobby at about 7pm.  Went up to the front desk clerk and said "check-in under reservation for Tan".  She kindly said, "oh Ms. Tan, we WERE able to upgrade you to the Family Winter Escape package.  You will just need to okay the additional $20 charge to your credit card."

Yes!  Success!  

Lessons learned:
1 - Check for deal more closely
2 - Never hurts to call to ask for the deal - worst they can do is say no.
3 - Use social media to voice your wishes - they can ignore it which is fine since I accepted the fact that I didn't do #1.  But, for their own reputation, it doesn't cost them anything to have a happy customer and let the twittersphere know that they treat their customers right.

So for the extra $20 for the 2 nights, we saved $75 (2 nights of parking and 1 free in-room movie, Life of Pi).  Our kids are too young to go ice-skating or Dave&Busters.   That's $55 for one single tweet.  Not bad.

Dreaded Easter Egg Hunt

Daddy (blue hoodie) and the little girl (in stripe pants)
waiting for the egg hunt to start.

It's that time of the year again.  Easter Egg Hunts organized by local parents, town municipalities, schools, etc.  I am excited and dreading these event. Last year, we took our then 3 year old to one, set up by the neighboring town, on the local high schools football field. When we got there, the parking lot was completely packed. The field was separated into 2 sections, one for kindergarten and younger, another for the older kids. We lined up in the younger kids section, with 50 kids and 100 parents.  The excitement was palpable.

I wasn't worried about the 50 or so kids.  I worried about the 100 parents.  They were much bigger than the kids.  The moved much faster than kids.  And they were more vicious.  Signs with "Kids Only" were everywhere.  But, when the whistle blew, and the rope separating the wave of humanity and the colorful eggs was dropped, all hell broke loose.

Parents of pre-schoolers ran to pick up the eggs.  I'm sure the event was not meant for 35 year old moms and dads to push each other and little kids to get at plastic eggs with candies inside.  Granted, I stood back with our newborn.  My husband was with our little girl in the crowd.  But, I can say for certain, he did not pick up any eggs for her.  He pointed to the eggs and told her to pick them up.  But, the important job for him was to make sure she wasn't trampled.

My little girl picked up 10 eggs, because she can count up to 10, and that's the number she wanted.  Some eggs had candy, some had stickers.  All that goodies were more than enough for a 3 year old. I don't see the point of fully-grown adults regressing to children just for some candy.

This year, we are going to the town's Easter Egg Hunt event with my daughter again.  She is excited.  Now, at 4, she knows that she'll get candy.  I hope that, I implore, other parents to let the kids do the egg picking themselves.  It's their event, not yours.  Your job is to make sure that your child is not trampled and that your child enjoys herself.  Not to take candy from little kids.

Working - Defined to a 4 Year Old

Now that my 4 year old is mature enough to handle money and grasp the concept of it, we let her keep her loot from her Chinese New Year red envelopes.  A total of $60.  Instead of putting it in the bank account, I gave her the two $20 dollar and two $10 dollar bills.  I told her that we can go on amazon.com and pick out whatever she wants that her $60 can buy her.  She loved that idea.  She joyfully picked out Play-Doh, Crayola water color, and a crayon melting contraption.  With tax and shipping, she is now left with $5.  Not enough to buy anything else.

So, my teachable mommy-self steps in.  I said, "you can earn more money by working".  My little girl asked, "what's work?"

Hmm.... what is work?  I wake up early, take the train to the big city, sit in a cube in front of several computers, write email, look at data, talk to people on the phone, but those things mean nothing to a 4 year old.

So, here's work that will get her paid, defined to a 4 year old, "something you do for someone else that you normally would not do".
such as:
1 - help feed your baby sister
2 - clean the cats' litter boxes
3 - clean up after your baby sister
4 - help shovel the snow
5 - make sure the cats have fresh water in their water bowls

work that will not get her paid:
1 - clean up after yourself
2 - feeding yourself
3 - hugging your sister
4 - be nice to people

So far so good.  Now I just need to define how much her jobs should be paid.