Youngest Wants to Take Things Over - May. 19, 2010

So our soon-to-be-nine-year-old is riding along with me last night.

 

She is a worker.

 

Never shies away from getting her hands dirty.

 

The job last night was Operation Clean the CR-V.

 

Somehow, the duty of cleaning the car had fallen on hard times. Dust on the dashboard, barely legible station markers on the satellite radio.

 

Probably six months of the girls and their lunch treats, road trips and all of that fun stuff.

 

Up to the do-it-yourself station we went, armed with toonies.

 

Well, despite the plane landing noise of the vacuum cleaner, she hung tough, asking to do the backseat and the floors.

 

We shared duties wiping down the dash and anything else that was dust-infested.

 

Some 20 minutes later, the rig looked new again.

 

Except for the outside which we cured by going through the carwash.

 

We liked the idea of recycled water instead of using a high-pressured hose, so we did the deed, paying through a machine that includes a voice telling us what to do and how to pay.

 

Amazing stuff, really.

 

It was a chance for youngest daughter to get caught up on all things.

 

She had been spending time with her grandmother and came back with some ideas, I guess.

 

The question was not really a question, but more of a statement.

 

"I want to make money, but I want to be the one getting it, not the one giving it."

 

I said, pardon?

 

"So, you want to be the boss?" I asked.

 

"Kind of," she replied. "Like you and Mom with the shop."

 

We call Animal Essentials 'the shop,' at home.

 

At that point when you are driving around the North Side of Fredericton, you take in what she was selling.

 

A couple of months away from being nine, she is wondering what all this entrepreneurship is all about.

 

I explained that it is not easy being a boss. You have to order, hire people, look after all kinds of problems and a litany of other items.

 

She said she would still like to do it.

 

"Well, I said, if we are still around, maybe the shop can be yours."

 

The conversation ended on that note, but of course, here I was thinking 16 years ahead.

 

Will we still be in business in 2024? Gosh, that is hard to imagine when you worry every day.

 

No stopping us, I suppose, with the way things are going, but you have to keep re-inventing yourself.

 

To ensure that maybe she takes it over.

 

Of course, then again, perhaps today she is back at wanting to be a firefighter or starting point guard for the UNB Varsity Reds with a career in Europe to follow.