Wednesday night Rerun: The Tale of Sticky Fingers and the Trip to Family Dollar

Since I have a few new readers, I’m going to do reruns every so often to get us all up to speed with the intricacies that are involved in following this blog. 😉   I’m republishing this post from June, which gives a tiny peek into our world.

(Setting: Baby asleep. Big kids supposed to be asleep, but too mock-scared of thunderstorm–occasional shouts of “save me”, etc.  J gone to play basketball.)

She looks so innocent, doesn’t she? Well, tonight I saw that perhaps I’m over modeling cheapness. This afternoon in a one hour window of time between J arriving home from school and departing for lessons, Addie and I ran to get diapers and, I hoped, a few outfits for Anika at the consignment store since she has very little to wear.  Shout-outs on facebook have been a bit fruitless, so . . .

We ran to Family Dollar for a reasonably good deal on diapers and wipes (that we desperately need since Dylan is down to two disposable Pull-ups with no particular eagerness to be potty trained–I’m pretending I don’t care–BUT I DO; Dang-it! He’s Three Now!)

Whoooo . . .anyway . . .only to discover that they didn’t carry the kind of diapers my coupons were for.  (Ooo bad sentence ended with preposition, but too pretentious to change sentence to read “the kind of diapers for which my coupons were.”–but just so you know, I know that is what it should say, but didn’t because I am NOT pretentious.)

So we get out to the wagon,  planning to scoot over to Food Lion where there is a similar sale, and I see in Addie’s hand ADORABLE PASTEL BABY HEADBANDS THAT SHE S-T-O-L-E!!!  So of course, I was shocked and whirled her right back in there to return them and apologize, about which time she bursts into tears because she is quite sensitive.  She did return them and apologized through her tears and gasps. Thankfully both clerks managed to look stern rather than pitying–the last thing I need when I’m trying to frighten the poop out of my kids.

So we get to Food Lion, she’s still crying, and I’m recounting The Tale of When Uncle Shane and Mommy Stole Balloons When I was Your Age. We found the diapers, got to the register, I paid and used my coupon, thankful that the cashier never flinched that it was a printable.  We rushed out with no time for the consignment shop, so it wasn’t until we were driving home I realized that–  !! ACKKK!!!– the diapers did not ring up at the sale price, which was the WHOLE DURN POINT.

Once home, I made Addie tell J The Tale of When I Stole Headbands and rechecked the sale paper to vindicate my horror at being cheated out of  !!! $2.14!!!  But alas, he had to go to lessons and the chance to return them will have passed once I open them to put them on Dylan, won’t it?  For those of you asking why J couldn’t have taken them, I have vowed not to make J return items that require some explanation that included revealing that we are excessively cheap.

Argghh! How cheap is too cheap? Tomorrow morning, should I drag three children to the Food Lion, which I have repeatedly repented for shopping at since inevitably something like this happens and it has thus far been known (by me) for arguably the most abysmal customer service in the world. I will then leave and there will be The Tale of the Mother who drug three kids and an open pack of Huggies into Food Lion to get $2.14 back. Or perhaps I will just be the C-A-B. (You can figure it out if you just think like an annoyed Food Lion employee.)

And it occurred to me while I was typing this post that it is very likely that, while in Family Dollar, Addie completely forgot she had picked up the headbands and inadvertently nabbed them, so sticky are her fingers and so innocent was her gift to baby Anika. It’s the thought that counts, right? Is gift-stealing better or worse than regular stealing or are they all the same?  Argghh again for there being SO many nuances to parenting.  Would you go back?  That is perhaps the real question.