So Where Were the Parents?

obviously not in the same room as the kids, because had they been, the following would NEVER had taken place. With that said....
never, Never, NEVER let your kids go on eBay!!! haha. Totally kidding of course, but seriously, they have basically anything you want. Obviously it is other people selling the stuff, but still, if you are looking for something, chances are you may find it on eBay. With that said, let me get to my point.
Tuesday, I am leaving for my 7:30am class at Weber. As I am walking out the front door I notice that both of the boys are still awake after their paper route (normally they come back home and go to bed). No big deal that they are awake, but Parker has his laptop on his lap, while reclined on the couch and Garrett is kneeling at the end of the couch near Parker's head and saying, "Put in 250, 250 quick!"
Okay, before I left for class I gave Brent a kiss goodbye and asked him if he needed to get up so he could start getting ready for the day since we had a busy day.
(You will see where I am going with that part)
So, I am walking out the door and Garrett is coaxing Parker on 250, put in 250!!! Ah-ha! I now know why they were up and Parker's computer was on his lap! He is wanting to buy some train track on eBay.
Oh, and that 250 is not $2.50, nor is it $25.00. No, we are talking $250.00!!!! What sort of kid has that money? Wait my kids do, only because they have this stupid thing called a paper route in which they now have financial freedom and they are free to purchase what ever they want. Oh, wouldn't that be grand if that were the case? Needless to say, I keep their ATM cards for that very purpose.
Ok, sorry, off of the soapbox now...recap...I am walking out the door, Garrett is egging Parker on to put in $250.00 while Parker has his laptop on his lap while reclined on the couch. (There, we are caught up)
So, as I am slipping my flip-flops on in the entry way getting ready to walk out the door and I hear Garrett say "250.00" to Parker, I quickly say, "BEFORE you order anything on eBay, you need to go talk to your father!"
Brent, who was still laying in bed, trying to find the will-power to drag himself out of bed heard the words that I said to the kids about talking to him prior to placing an order.
Well, I am driving to Weber when my phone rings, it is Brent. I answer it. He is sooo MAD!!!! I could hear Parker in the background crying, Brent would interrupt our conversation to have a very heated talk with the kids and tell them that they are grounded and that they needed to get to their rooms. Can you guess what my kids did? Yep, you guessed it, they ordered the train track. All 70 feet of track. $235.00 for the track and $35.00 for shipping and handling. Sweet huh? So I ask to talk to the kids, first Parker, he is crying when he gets on the phone. I proceed to rail on him, I guess. I did not yell, but I was not a happy mom (it did not help that I was heading to class to take a test as well). I then ask to talk to Garrett, and proceed to tell Garrett what a DUMB mistake they just made and how they have screwed up our eBay rating that we have tried to maintain as being good buyers/sellers. He was surprised that there were ratings. I told him he knew NOTHING about this buyer, let alone his rating (what others thought of him) and how much shipping was going to be. Oh I was MAD as well!!!
Garrett was trying to tell me that he did not buy it and that Parker bought it. Well, let's see....Garrett sat there, egged Parker on - even though it was Parker's computer - and told Parker how to place a bid. Hmmmm, I think Garrett played an equal part in it. What he was tyring to say is that once I told them to talk to their father, he told Parker they should not place the bid, but Parker went ahead and hit the CONFIRM bid button instead. Still, Garrett played an equal part.
So I get Brent back on the phone and he tells me that he has told them that this probably won't be the end of it, they will still have to talk to me when I get home (why do I always have to be the bad parent?).
Class gets over and I head home knowing what I have to come home to. I walk in the door, did not make any word about what they did. THEN, I decided to bring it back up. I was a much nicer mommy this time. We had (at least that is what I want to thing we did) a very good discussion on why they are not allowed to place bids on eBay (I told them it was illegal for kids their age to do that and to falsely do it under someone else's account). I then told them that this discussion was over and there was no point in rehashing it anymore. Although, I will not let them here the end of it, I am sure one day it will be one of those funny stories - well maybe not so funny, humorous, not sure, but I still will bring it up when the time is right, just not get mad.
Well, we emailed the buyer and informed him of what happened. He was very nice and said that he would contact the second highest bidder and see if he would still be interested in the track, but if not we had to pay for them. We knew we could put the track to good use outside, but we just did not need that much, but if we had to, the boys were going to make good on the mistake that they made and buy the track.
Well, we heard back from the buyer later that evening and he said that the other bidder still wanted to track and that we were off the hook. WHEW!!!
Needless to say, I have two boys that are grounded from their computers for at least two weeks, maybe longer. They are no longer allowed to go on eBay, and I have told them I can check what sites they visit, so they better not even try it. I am also going to change my eBay password, yet again, so they cannot get into mine and Brent's account.
So there you have it, never, Never, NEVER let your kids go on eBay! (at least unsupervised)