Never a dull trip to Wal-Mart!

On Mother's Day one of the things I decided I wanted to do was to bring my kids to Wal-Mart and let them spend some of THEIR money.

Let me explain.....

When my children get money for their birthday or Christmas we don't let them go out and spend it all at once right away, especially at Christmas when they are already overloaded with new toys and other gifts. So we save the money and we pick a day that they are possibly being extra good or a time that has been far enough away from their birthday or Christmas that they have had time to enjoy the gifts they got before getting more new stuff.

So on Mother's Day I thought I'd be nice and let them spend some of their money.  So off to Wal-Mart we went after church.  After much going back and forth, up and down the aisles my children finally decided what they wanted to buy.  So after picking up a few more things that we needed off to the check out we went.  

As part of my job as a parent is to teach my children about spending money. I feel they need to actually give the money to the cashier to feel like they are paying for it and for them to realize what it truly is to spend money.  I think if I hand the money over they don't realize as much that it is THEIR money that is being spent.

So with that in mind here comes the NOT SO DULL MOMENT.

As we are standing in line I start handing out the money to the kids.  Lili was sitting in the back of the cart so I was holding on to her money.  Hank was given a $10 and a $20 (the Legos he picked out were going to be around 26 dollars) and BJ was given 2 $20s because he didn't have a $10 (his Legos were going to be around 26 dollars also).  So here I am with Brian putting the items we are buying that day on the conveyor belt and chatting about things when we hear "Dad, Hank dropped his money."  So we turn around expecting to see him bending over to pick up the money.  But NO that was not what was happening.

He was just standing there. So we asked, "What did you drop and where did you drop it?"  Hank proceeded to show us that he only had a $20 in his hand and he told us "It dropped on the conveyor belt."  "WHAT?," I proceeded to ask.  "What do you mean on the conveyor belt?"  He then pointed to it and said, "There."  He was pointing to the end of the belt UNDERNEATH the cover.  At this point Brian and I are in amazement and annoyance at the same time.  The cashier also said "It should have fallen out underneath."  Guess what NOPE!  It is an enclosed back of the conveyor belt.  So I'm thinking Hank is going to be learning a very expensive ($10 which for a 7 year old is expensive) lesson.

The next thing you know the cashier is calling over someone asking them to get a screwdriver.  So the cashier proceeds to unscrew the cover of the conveyor belt, all the while the line behind us in growing and people are wondering what's happening.  After a couple of screws being taken out and the cover being pulled back the cashier reaches in and pulls out a $10 bill.  She promptly hands the bill over to Hank and closes up the conveyor belt.  She then goes back around the belt to the cash register and continues to ring up the sale.  Luckily the people in line behind us were very gracious and didn't seem to be upset at the whole thing.

Now the next thing that Hank did blew my mind but hey he's 7 and I have to keep reminding myself of that.  So what did he do you ask?  He put his money down on the conveyor belt again.  Well that only lasted a matter of seconds before Brian and I quickly corrected him and made him hold it until it was time to pay for his Legos.

Like I said...NEVER A DULL MOMENT WITH MY KIDS!!