Week Three: The Grocery Store

It was not going to be easy to mentor two kids every week. I was determined to be in contact every week, but I knew I would miss doing an activity here and there. Still I wasn't going to make a habit of it, especially not in the first month (April 2009). The past two occasions had lasted a few hours each, but I really only had the hour I had committed to this week and I was fitting it in with errands to get it done. They needed to see me in normal life and not just for fun anyway.

Today we would be going to Checker Auto, Home Depot and Walmart. What fun! The simplest task of changing a tail light is so much easier with someone else's help. I figured these kinds of things would be like a fringe benefit for my mentoring and a good learning experience for Daniel and Jared. I also wanted to pick up a tomato plant or two. I told them we would be going to a couple stores.

While we were at it they wanted to see what movies were playing so we drove by there. They figured when I said we were going to the store that I meant the mall, so they begged me to stop there, but I didn't. They saw a handful of older teens walking from the mall and wondered out loud if I could beat them all up so they yelled out the window at them and then hid. I just laughed.

Home Depot had some plants but I wanted to compare prices. We went to Walmart but this particular one didn't have plants. I resolved to check the Walmart closer to my home. Meanwhile Daniel was checking out explicit magazines. He asked me if I thought a half naked woman looked good. I told him she would be prettier with more clothes on and I meant that, but he didn't believe me. It was time to go, but Jared had run off trying to prolong the evening. He had been given a Walmart card from one of his brothers. It had $100 arbitrarily written on it with a marker. When I caught up to him I told him to check with a store clerk before stocking up, just to make sure there was still money on it. As I thought, there wasn't. It was kind of sad, but funny. I turned around and told Daniel to remove whatever it was he was stuffing down his gym shorts. He swore he had nothing, but then changed that to, "no one will know." I told him that I would turn him into security if he didn't put it back. He had a large powerade. I told Daniel and Jared to each choose a small powerade and I would buy it for them. They did, but Daniel chose to bring the big one along and place it on the register. He said he deserved it since I was his mentor and not Jared. I told him he needed to tell me before we went to do an activity if he wanted me all to himself. I don't know if they thought I was less cool on this visit, but ground rules were beginning to be set, and they were realizing that I was more than the typical buddy they hang out with, but still a break from the day to day with foster care.