I called Evan a small fish in a big pond and asked him what's up. He said the ceiling. Every time I say what's up, I get the same answer and I keep doing it. Then he asked me what I just ate. I told him water, but I drank it being silly right back. He came back with how am I supposed to know that, so I told him he asked and I answered. That's how he's supposed to know. Neither one of us was really answering the other one. We do the same thing at the dinner table and I've stopped treating it like a problem, because he's talking to me, which is the part I actually care about. What happens in your house when you answer the question honestly and still end up in the wrong?

We were mining, which is the least interesting thing we do on camera, so I said out loud that nobody wants to watch this part and I'd skip over it in editing. Evan came straight back with I thought you said you weren't editing. Bruh. Are you kidding me right now? He remembers everything I say. If I say something offhand and then do the opposite, he brings it up, and he's right more than wrong. I'd rather he did that than let it go. Does your kid quote you back to yourself when you slip up?

I figured out this episode that you can repair a pickaxe with an iron ingot instead of letting it break and starting over, which means the upgrades you put on it actually stick. I explained the whole thing to Evan. He listened, asked me what happens to your armor upgrades when you die, and then told me not to put a repair upgrade on it. I had already done it. Then we found our first living survivor in the game, an old guy named Gramps Bartley, and Evan wanted to kill him on sight for no real reason. I talked him out of it, so instead he robbed the guy blind. Stole his sleeping bag, broke his antenna, looted the whole house. Bartley probably isn't making it to the next episode. It is the same thing that happens when I show him how to do something in the garage. He follows along fine, lets me finish, and then names the one part I glossed over. Does your kid do that to you?

We split the town debt a long time ago and I've paid my half up front every time since. This session Evan announced he'd banked 512 thousand and was clearing the whole thing himself, three deeds at once, the wish fountain, the band stand and the plant shop. I asked if I could cover some of it. He said half. Then before I'd answered he talked himself down to a third, about 50 thousand, and I took it, which worked out closer to a quarter once I'd paid. I nearly argued him back up and I'm glad I didn't. I think he wanted to do something for me, and I try to let him, because a kid who gets waved off every time he offers stops offering. Would you let your kid pay for something, or is that a line for you?

Three money things in one session. He checked the mail and collected 2,000 in rent off his guest house. Then he asked how he had 544 thousand, and the answer is amber, which he digs up metal detecting and sells to John himself. Then he pulled half of it out of the bank in case he died. I told him a chest would be safer and he put it in his pockets instead. I don't know if that actually helps, and neither did he. I said my piece once and left him to it, because it's his money and he made all of it without me. Same with birthday money here. I say it once and then I stay out of the way, 'cause he learns more losing a bit of it than he does listening to me. How much do you let your kid decide about their own money?