Somehow He Got The Message Later In Life

You know how you try to raise your kids to be honest? Well...unless, perhaps, you're Ron Moody as Fagin with all of his pickin' a pocket or two boys in the 1969 Best Picture musical Oliver! that is. But assuming you're neither Ron Moody nor a real-life Fagin, you try to teach your children right from wrong. Even when shopping at The Devil's Playground.

Today The Pony said he was tempted to get a donut out of The Devil's bakery case.

"Okay. You mean to eat when we get to the car?"

"Uh huh."

"I just wanted to make sure. You know. Because we have to pay for it up front with everything else."

"Yeah. I know. Dad and I do that when he does the shopping." (TWICE, let the record show.)

So we got up front, rather than dash to the gaming room with his two dollars, The Pony stood in front of the cart and "helped" me put things on the conveyor. Until I told him to stop! Because he messed up my system of boxes together, and cold together, and heavy, and soft, and hot deli.

I assumed The Pony was going to eat his donut while gaming. We were headed to Terrible Clips right after the shopping, so I didn't think he'd have time to eat it in T-Hoe. Especially if he didn't shame me into not driving up the one-way exit into the Terrible Clips parking lot.

"There. She rang it up. Are you taking your donut?"

"Sure."

Yet The Pony stood at the end of the cart during bagging.

"You can go play your games."

"Okay."

Huh. I parked the paid-for cart beside him while he was game-shooting and made a trip to the bathroom. It doesn't pay to make extra stops after taking the morning medicine. When I came out, The Pony was still shooting.

"I'm going out."

He caught up to me before I was out the exit door. Which made people trying to enter there sigh and frown. The Pony was still carrying that donut.

"I thought you were going to eat that."

"No. Not until the car. I have a dollar left, too, because I didn't have time to play it."

"I guess not, with only one hand to shoot with. All I meant about eating that donut in the store was that it's like people eating grapes and paying for less when they get to the front. You can't do that."

"I KNOW! But when I was little, and we used to stop by Casey's for donuts? I always tried to eat one of mine in line. All the time I was thinking, 'Then we'll only have to pay for ONE.' I thought that's how it worked."

Sweet Gummi Mary! You'd think we were paupers!