Webkinz World

Here in Houston, webkinz are a big thing -- some of our friends in other states had not even heard of them. So if you haven't heard of them check out this tour. Each of our girls has one. They earned them at the end of last school year and have spent much of the summer playing on it. They love it. I think it has been a good thing. They have to read and play games and take care of their pet. I think they have actually begun to understand the value of money. In Webkinz world, you do jobs and play games to earn Kinzcash. With this money, you must buy your pet food, clothes, furniture, home decorations, and more. The girls have learned how to save for big purchases (like a fridge or a new room addition on the house). They have learned to budget (if you spend it all on clothes and don't buy food then your pet will not be healthy). All is well in Webkinz world and I love to let them play there . . . that is until this morning when nothing but screams were coming out of the office.

"Where is my money?" Julianne screamed at Catherine.
Catherine just giggled.
"Where is my money?" Julianne screamed even louder. And then Julianne hit Catherine and they were both crying and then I walked in.

After sorting through the yelling and accusations and yelling and accusations and then double checking on webkinz this is what happened. . .

Catherine really wanted to buy a pink frilly fridge for her kitchen to store her food, but this particular fridge cost 680 kinzcash and Catherine did not have it. Knowing full well that it could take weeks for her to earn that much money and knowing she wanted it right now, she decided to log off her account and log in on Julianne's. She saw that Julianne had enough money and so she bought the fridge on Julianne's account and then she mailed it as a gift to her account. The perfect way to get a fridge for free or so she thought.

Apparently, my kids have learned all about money on webkinz, including how to steal it!!!!!

The hard part was that as Catherine was explaining her crime, Trent and I were so amazed that she devised this plan that we had a hard time not laughing about it. Trent said to her, "Catherine, that is stealing. Do you feel bad for stealing from julianne?" She staunchly replied,"NOOOOOO!!!" We both nearly lost it -- we were trying so hard to be serious.

And then I learned a lot more about Webkinz world, for example, one can gift any item -- but not cash. So Catherine cannot send Julianne the money. We had Catherine return the fridge to Julianne who then took it to the W- shop. (the main store, but they also have a pawn shop). We pawned off the perfectly new fridge that cost 680 and only got 340 for it (another good lesson, right?) And now Catherine has to gift Julianne enough items equalling 680 more kinzcash dollars.

Hopefully the webkinz police don't lock up Catherine's webkinz pet. But then it does deserve it . . . maybe she can get deferred ejudication as she is a first time offender. . . or maybe there are some lessons better left unlearned.