Parental Presents

Remember when you were a child and your parent or parents went away and you couldn’t wait for them to get home because (in part) they were going to bring you a present from wherever they went? My father did a lot of traveling in our state for work but every now and again he or he and my mother would go someplace different, some place not at all close to where I lived, and they’d typically bring me something from that different place, giving it to me when they got home.

My parents always did a good job of getting something little that typified some aspect of that culture or location.   If it was candy they got double points, although some of the more memorable presents were things that at the time seemed boring or too grown up that I wouldn’t appreciate until I was older.

Now I’m the parent and when my husband and I go on vacation we get something for the children.   We were in Las Vegas and finding something touristy was pretty easy.   My children aren’t old enough to realize or remember about the gifts and aren’t at the pestering age yet, asking us, “what did you bring me?” the moment we walk in the door.

My daughter is easy because she loves all stuffed animals.  It doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as the feel and shape are interesting she’s happy.   My son we weren’t sure on but since he likes magic tricks I thought a set of rigged dice would be fun—guaranteed to roll seven or eleven.

He loved the dice and made up games with them while we were eating dinner.  We talked about the maximum number you could roll with four dice and the minimum number.   Then we adjusted that maximum and minimum based on the restrictions of the trick dice and found our range of possible outcomes was narrower.  

We guessed what number I’d come up with when I rolled the dice and found out all four of us had “lost our bet”.   We told them that was what gambling was like and how much had they wagered on picking the right number?  My son (even though he knew he had lost) had apparently put a lot of money down.   My daughter, being the more frugal child, said she had bet only one dollar.

The Big Boy Update:  We also got my son some facsimile casino chips from our trip to Las Vegas.   He spread them out on the table and has already started thinking about how he’s going to use them in games with his friends.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We got my daughter a sucker in the shape of a large die.   She could feel the indentation of the pips on the sucker and wanted to know of they went through to the sucker or if it was only on the wrapping cellophane.   It was too late to eat it today but I’d bet tomorrow she’s going to want to eat that pointy, cubed sucker as her dessert after dinner.