Unwanted gifts

Today was a travelling day.  5 car trips and a plane ride later I am finally home and it feels great.  My bed!  My computer!  My fast internet connection! My solitude! ... It turns out that's pretty much all I care about.

On the way I had another incident where a random bystander leapt into action to save Elli from actually learning anything useful.  It has happened before that a random person decided that children must be saved from the hell that is budgeting and handed me money to pay for some random trinket that caught Elli's eye but the heinous cost of the trinket in this case made me shake my head.

The thing on Elli's head is a travel pillow for children.  Coloured bright pink it is a irresistible magnet for small feminine folk, especially with its ability to also function as a bizarre hat.  We were in the airport walking past a random store and Elli spotted the ridiculous thing and demanded ownership.  As usual I told her that she could have it if she had enough money but the pillow had no price on it.  This, you understand, was necessary because the bloody chintzy cheap ass pillow costs seventeen dollars.

Because there was no ticket on the pillow though (I hate marketing people who specialize in getting children to beg for things, just in case that wasn't obvious) we had to take it up to the counter to find out what the damage was going to be.  The lady ahead of us in line overheard me talking about Elli paying for it and immediately asked to buy it for us.  I choked when I saw the seventeen dollar price ring up on the till but she didn't hesitate a moment and swiped her card.

So now we have a silly pink travel pillow and Elli has learned once again that the best way to get things is not to save up but rather to be cute and get random women in stores to buy things for her.  I am TRYING to teach her about money management, I swear, but instead she is learning to fleece generous people.  For all my good intentions I have a con artist in the making.