Inflation

In our house, there is always something missing. I believe this is the natural evolution of the sock fairy who stole all my socks in the college laundromat. Now, random items disappear for no apparent reason, like there is big black hole residing just underneath the carpet pad, two inches to the left of the fireplace... until it moves to somewhere else in the house to wreak havoc on another part of our stuff.

Last night, after a day of heavy toddler play from visiting children, our toddler's block puzzle was missing a picture from one side of one block. Why only one side of one block was missing from a total of 12 or so blocks with six sides each I have no idea. At any rate, my wife offered up a bountiful reward for the missing picture: 500 kisses. It was a Leave It to Beaver moment. I could imagine one of the kids finding the picture and receiving those 500 sweet kisses from Mom. But no. The boy demanded $500 before he would even begin the search.

$500! Are you kidding me? Is this demand adjusted for inflation or something? Would it have been $200 yesterday before the Fed raised interest rates?! How is it that we are raising our children to be extortionists? Last month, after having six baby teeth pulled in one day (they wouldn't fall out on their own), this same boy wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy saying he thought he deserved $200 for "pain and suffering".

Needless to say, the Tooth Fairy didn't think it was funny. And although our son did receive a nice gift in exchange for his six newly departed teeth, it was far from $200. As for the missing block picture, we never could get anyone to find it.