Pick a Pocket or Two

Yesterday we had quite a few errands to do, so we spent the morning driving all over creation picking things up and dropping things off and spending more money than one would have thought necessary. We went to the post office. We went to the grocery store for just a few items, and then we went to the library to return our books and music and movies.

Then I dragged the kids to the vet's where I had to pick up more flea and tick repellant, for all those fleas and ticks that mob our pets this time of year... the ones that like snow, apparently.

And while I was chatting with the young lady behind the desk and absorbing the fact that a six month supply for all our pets is about $250 ($250!) I turned my head to check up on my children. And caught Nicholas in the act of pulling something out of his coat pocket. "Here are my coins!" he said. And then he pulled one of those small bags of chocolate coins out of his pocket.

"Nicholas," I asked in a loud, astonished, and also horrified voice. "Where did you get those?" Because, you see, I did not remember ever GIVING him a bag of chocolate coins, although I had been trying to keep an eye out for a few to drop in his Easter Basket.

"At the grocery store," He explained.

At this point the other woman in the waiting room and the lady asking me for $250 both started laughing, and I darted across the room to quickly remove the chocolate coins from Nick's grasp and deliver a lecture about how WE ALWAYS ASK MOMMY if we want something and WE HAVE TO PAY for everything we buy and also THAT'S STEALING and VERY BAD and NEVER DO IT AGAIN.

Nicholas was clearly baffled. He had no idea that he had done anything wrong. He also had no idea the coins were chocolate. Go figure. He thought they were just fun coins. I thought about going back to the grocery store to apologize, but in the end decided against it since 1 - it was very much out of our way, 2- It was about $.75 of chocolate, and 3 - I think it would have been more confusing to NIck than anything else. He was unusually quiet on the way home.

The lady with the dog in the waiting room and a few people behind the counter all apologized for laughing, but apparently the look on my face upon seeing the pocketed item was pretty funny. Now I need to figure out how I'm going to teach Nick about money in an age that is so Debit Card dependant.