Payback is a pain in the butt...

They always tell you when you are growing up "I hope you have a child just like you!" Not only did I have one child that is EXACTLY like me, I have 2 of them. I love my daughters so much, but tonight I just wanted to flick them!

Thom and I decided to take the kids to the M&M World down on the Las Vegas strip. This was supposed to be just a daddy daughter date for him and Emily but I decided to crash the party. I should have just stuck to the original plan (that would have saved a bunch of headache) and stayed home with the other 2 kids.

We arrived on the strip and the kids got excited, they were in awe of the opulence of the MGM Grand hotel and casino, the lion habitat and the roller coaster at New York New York. We navigated our way down the sidewalk through the sea of people and characters that lined the outsides of the shops and casinos. We arrived at the door to the M&M World and the sparkle in their eyes was just precious. This is the point that you should take a picture because that is as cute as they get, from here the green eyed monster appears and all you want to do is lock them in a closet until they are 30.

We made it just in time for the last show of the 3D movie they show on the 3rd floor of the land of M&Ms. I was presently surprised when even Sean put on the glasses(played with them is more like it) and watched the show. We then ventured out into the store to get pictures with all the life sized M&Ms. Hunting for each color to make sure they took a picture inform of all of them.

After we had wandered each of the floors, the kids discovered the "fill your own M&M bag" station. WARNING if the price of an item is not CLEARLY posted, run far far away from that area, do not purchase! The kids were given the green light to get "a few" M&Ms in their bag.

Before we knew it Sarah had a bag so full of M&Ms she could not get the twist tie around the top. It was at this time that I heard the faintest voice coming from an employee saying "they are mmmmm.99 per pound please pour slowly" I turned to Thom to clarify did he say $12.99 per pound?? Thom said that he was not sure he though they said $4.99. Looking at the massive bag of candy in Sarah's hand, I prayed it was the lesser of the two. We made our way to the check out stand and the clerk said "wow are you ready for this total, you are aware that the candy is $12.99 per pound."

This is the point at which I flash back to my child hood, grabbing anything in site when my parents took us places with out a care in the world for the price. My darling husband was wonderful at keeping his calm (when I knew full well he wanted to throw the bag of candy at the back wall of the store and walk out of the store) looked at his daughters with eyes that only a father can and said "I hope you enjoy those M&Ms because that is all the chocolate you get for the year."

I never knew how hard it was for my parents to "swipe that card" each time one of the kids just "had to have" that toy or candy or jacket. I never respected the sacrifices they made so that we could have a happy child hood. Now I TOTALLY understand the look on their face every time we asked for something that was a little outrageous. I guess as parents we have to walk that fine line between spoiling our children rotten, and depriving them of any of the nice things in life. I don't want and never have raised my kids to believe that money grows on trees. But today it defiantly hit home that it is probably not the smartest parenting decision for me to not stop them when they are going overboard. No matter how big the scene will be in the store. I am just going to have to work on this one folks.