It started last year when he saved up enough pocket money to buy the skateboard he had been coveting for like forever, and that moment I watched him hand over his hard earned dosh to the young guy at the skate shop was a very proud moment....
Until I found out he had bought his younger brothers $2 coins off him for a $1 each.
He somehow managed to convince Flynn that since $1 coins were bigger - they were worth more and so Flynn naively handed over all his $2 coins in exchange for half their value while Sammy laughed his way to the Skate Shop.
I was mad, but admittedly I was kind of impressed too.
Talk about selling ice to an Eskimo.
Sam currently has his eye on a new Playstation game and he is determined to earn the cash to buy it for himself.
This ambition has been spurred on by the ease in which he managed to flog the few remaining packets of School Fundraising chocolates to the neighbours (The Turkish delights - the ONLY ones they didn't insist on me buying).
"Easy money" I believe he said as he dusted his hands and winked at me.
Now it was in the Christmas holidays that I first noticed something was a little skewif. I would go to make a Vodka and Lime and Soda, only to find my bottles of Schweppes Soda and Lime were missing.
At one point I even started questioning myself - was I drinking MORE than I thought I was??
No I wasn't. It turns out that Sammy and some of the boys in the street were pinching my bottles of Soda and had set themselves up the street with a lemonade stand and were selling MY soda for 50 cents a cup.
Oh and did I mention they had raided my party supplies box and were using all my disposable cups too?
I only found this out after one of the neighbours commented on how polite the boys were when they were selling the drinks. hmmmmmmm I wasn't sure whether I was so supposed to be pissed off or proud, so I just let it go without a reaction.
Next to disappear were whole packets of Arnotts Assorted Creme biscuits. You know the ones you say I am sooooo not buying but you kinda do anyway?
Yep them.
I can even recall the moment I had words with the boys about how eating them all in one sitting was being greedy and there were no prizes for finishing the whole packet. The part I recall the most (besides two of the boy's complete confusion as they hadn't touched the biscuits) was thinking to myself "Oh Man I sound just like my own Mother".
Turns out Sammy decided that you could get more coin from a customer if you could offer a snack AND a cold drink. You gotta give him points for lateral thinking.
The final straw came last week when I found him bagging up cashew nuts in little Glad snap lock bags.
"What on earth are you doing with those Sam?" I asked nervously.
"I'm selling them for $2 bucks a bag" was his reply.
I opened the jar and tasted one of the nuts. I was a little wary considering I hadn't actually SEEN that jar of nuts for at least 6 months.
They were beyond stale.
They were the so bad that you need to rinse your mouth out with detergent kind of stale.
"You cant sell them Sam. They are stale!" I exclaimed
"What does that mean?" he innocently enquired.
"It means they are REALLY old huni" I responded.
*cue the fist pump from Sammy* "YES Mature nuts - I can charge more for them" was his reply.
You really have to hand it to the kid, when he wants something he goes for it and at least he is thinking of ways he can make some money .... all be it slightly dubious ways that are COSTING me money.
But the apple really hasn't fallen far from the tree in this case as my brother and I were quite the entrepreneurs ourselves as kids.
I can recall one year at Christmas time, my brother walked me from house to house in our street. He knocked on the door and when the occupant opened it I was instructed to sing Christmas Carols and dance.
While I put on the show he held a St George piggy bank out to the homeowner and collected donations for my singing.
I did actually make a couple of bucks for my humiliation.
He made more.
He told me it was his agents fee.
Another time I walked around the neigbourhood with a jar of peanut brittle that someone had made my mum. I knocked on the doors and invited the neighbours to taste the brittle and when they said it was nice, I sold them some.
Since I didnt actually have any peanut brittle to sell at that moment in time, I took forward orders which were paid for in advance.
I made a motsza and sold loads of jars of peanut brittle.
The only problem was I had no idea how to make the stuff to fill the orders and so my poor Grandmother was roped into making it for me.
I don't think I actually paid her with anything more than my gratitude.
My poor Grandmother.
I even asked the neighbours for the jars back when they had finished their peanut brittle because the jars were actually my mums.
It's looking back on memories like these and then watching my own children follow in my footsteps that I truly realise the truth behind the old saying - Karma is a Bitch!
Were you an entrepreneurial kid?
Do your children like to play shop with your groceries?
How much IS the going rate for a glass of Soda and Lime and a Arnotts bickie?
