I often have moments of gratefulness that Alexis is on my team. She's a force to be reckoned with, for sure. Just ask the person who tried to argue with her that there's nothing insulting about, "Scream like a girl." Actually, don't ask. I think that person has been rendered incapable of speech thanks to she who is really good at supporting her opinions.
(I do not put her up to these things, by the way. I've spent a lifetime ignoring sexism and charging ahead while throwing signs of it to the side, but then I met Alexis and her 24624319809 questions. You can't run from the realities of sexism when you've got a little girl standing in front of you asking why "run like a girl" is used as an insult when she's faster than all of the boys.) (She's not wrong.) (She's still waaaaaaaay more vocal about these things than I am. I'm learning, though.)
Not only is Alexis a master of thoughtful debate, she's also really super good at problem solving. It's disconcerting, to be honest. She has always been good at it, so I at least know to expect that she will find a workable solution regardless of the situation.
And that's how it came to be that Alexis figured out a complete plan for acquiring a cell phone that actually works as a phone. Right now she has an old iPhone. It essentially is a iPod Touch since it doesn't have a data or voice plan. Alexis has to depend on wi-fi, a fact which has started to make her nutty.
But then she figured it all out.
Step 1: Determine who much we spend on daycare, after school, camp, and all of those things.
Step 2: Determine how much we won't spend on all of those things if she is in charge of Mila.
Step 3: TAAAA-DAAAAAAH!
Really. Alexis put together a very detailed financial report about how if she starts babysitting next summer, she can pay for five years of phone bills within a month.
FIVE YEARS.
Her math was valid.
History will tell a story about a mom who started saying "No" regardless of the question and who refused to ever explain why the answer was no. History will judge that mother harshly, but know this: she was refusing to have the "why not" conversation because she didn't stand a chance at winning it.
Welp.