March 5, 2010

Better Than the Bank

Everyone has a special place where they hide cash.

Some stuff their money under mattresses. Others stash bills in cookie jars, in sock drawers, or between the pages of old books. A guy in The New Testament buried his savings in his backyard. I know a few people who use banks.

Most members of my family store their money in my home's air vents.


"What are doing over there?" I asked my six-year-old son this afternoon.

Kellen was hovered over the vent in the corner of my kitchen. He jumped in surprise when I called his name.

"Not much," he replied. In his right hand, he clutched several quarters which he had removed from my cup holder in the car.

As I was putting two and two together, Cameron scooted over and attempted to insert a dollar bill into the vent. Cortlen stood behind him, holding an empty piggy bank, clapping.

"Good job!" he praised.

"How much money is down there?" I asked as I frantically looked for a flashlight.

My conservative estimate is $13.00, mostly in dimes and nickels.

I went into the bathroom to take a breather. When I returned, Kellen asked if I could help him dig out a dollar or two. The rest of the coins were to go untouched. "When we go to the store tomorrow," he told me, "I think I want to buy something."

****
Where is the craziest place where your kids have stashed something?

41 comments

Apron Appeal said...

The vents in my car! Every time I turn a corner I am remind of it as the coins slide from one end of the dashboard to the other.

sewmanybooks.blogspot.com

Cas said...

My mother in law bought my son a womb bear...it made the sounds of the mother's heartbeat...well apparently it did not sound like mine because our son hated it from day 1. Luckily you can take the sound thing out..it has a little velcro pocket. I found half a poptart and 5 goldfish in there today...he is only 15 months old...but it looks like he has mommy's stashing sense...we just have to work on teaching him its money you stash not food...for now he earned the nickname squirrel.

JoLyn said...

When my son was about a year and half, my car keys were missing. For about two weeks. I was quite sure he had carried them off somewhere. I finally found them in the tupperware powdered sugar container.

Shandi said...

My daughter who is 13 months is always losing her pacifier. It really drives me nuts. well one day I was back in my room folding laundry and she walks into my bathroom. So I watch..she opens the cupboard digs in the toilet paper bag....and pulls out her pacifier! Seriously! It was too funny!

Amanda said...

My husband kept an old metal lunchbox down the vent in his bedroom. When his mom served something he didn't like for dinner he would put it in his pocket and stash it in the lunchbox after dinner. When he finally moved out he remembered it and took the vent cover off. It was all still in the lunchbox just petrified!!

Mc Allen said...

aww, clever boy.. its actually genius, but not real practical, lol!! Cute post :) xoxo LA

Anonymous said...

I was babysitting my nephew, Wyatt, once and stopped by a neighbor's house for a quick visit. A couple of weeks later, she stopped by to return a few of his trucks, which he had apparently stashed in their Christmas tree and they found them when they took it down. This same nephew also hid several butter knives in my heat registers....luckily, he stuck them in sideways so they didn't fall down into the vents!

My own kids have never been as creative as Wyatt!

Yvette said...

My kids think the latch of the seat belt is the perfect slot machine for all coins and anything that resembles a coin.

Malea said...

HA! I've got this one covered, here's my blogged post about this very issue. :

http://maleascott.blogspot.com/2009/07/save-it-for-rainy-day-or-empty-stomach.html

The Four Week Vegan said...

Well, I always like when they stash it in their pockets and forget to clean out their pockets before sending their clothing to me to wash. You see any money found in the wash is the property of the wash lady, me :)

Anonymous said...

We don't have any kids but my grandmother has hidden money in her ceramic dog collection for YEARS!Several of the dogs have holes in the bottom, so she would stick cash up those. We used to make a game out of finding it when we were little. She would always yell at us to put it back and then take us to Taco Bell. It is one of my favorite memories.

Paula said...

All three of my kids used to store things under their thighs while sitting in their high chair or in their car seat. "Did you eat all of your hot dog, baby?" Nope. Shoved under her thighs. "Where are all of your goldfish?" Yep. Under her thighs. One day she'll learn that one's thighs don't need any help looking like storage devices. Three kids and 20 pounds will take care of that for you!

My Mercurial Nature said...

My daughter loves to play with my purse, and in particular the change that gathers at the bottom. It took awhile before I noticed the change stash was decreasing and even longer before I was able to sneak up on her one afternoon as she dropped, one at a time, her handful of stolen coins into the heater vent in our dining room. And I thought she was the only one! Ha!

Nacia said...

My 4 year old son likes to hide my mail under his dresser. He gets really upset that he doesn't get any mail. I try to tell him that all I get is bills, but it doesn't seem to matter. Great post!

Mal said...

As a toddler, my parents say I used my diaper. Let's just say I was rarely mugged by my older brother or sister.

The Stowers said...

My son has many hiding places, but one of the places he really loves to hide things is in my dresser drawers. He also has a "secret drawer," where he likes to hide things. One day, during a garage sale, he didn't like the fact that we were selling some of his old clothes. Later on that evening, I found several shirts in my nightstand drawer. Since they were still too small for him, I ended up taking them to the thrift store. :)

Cindy in PA said...

Craziest place my kid has stashed something? Dirty dishes in her dresser drawer...oh and by the way, she's 19!
New house rule...no food allowed (by her) away from the kitchen table! lol

Jo's girl said...

in our old house that was built in 1949, has a gas furnace and very small door ways. so the builder felt the need to put in small metal grates on both sides of the wall to allow for better air flow, however over the many years since then, the layers of paint have made the removal of said grates impossible unless you want to rebuild the wall that will inevitable be ripped away. and my kids find that every coin size fits neatly in the square holes. as well as various toys and stickers. not to mention dust bunnies abound in such a perfect untouched spot. i was able to vacuum some dust bunnies up and with a chop stick poke out some of the larger coins and toys. but i will now never get that half hour of labor back from my life for the mere .73¢ 4 stickers and 2 army men that were rescued.

jeleighbean said...

My son (about 2 at the time) hid disc 2 to Ice Age 2 under the fruit crisper drawer in our fridge. When I couldn't find I didn't think to ask him, I just figured it was swallowed by our house, much like legos, Barbie shoes, baby socks, and the remote when I want it. A month or so later my daughter asked where it was (apparently she loves the deleted scenes from movies and must watch every disc that provides such gems) and he walked right over and pointed it out. I pulled the drawer out when his chubby fingers couldn't pull it out and sure enough, there it sat.
If hide 'n seek ever hits the Olympics, I'm entering him.

Sally said...

Your post jogged my memory. When my oldest was a tot, he would stick change in the floppy drive (remember those?) of the computer,which was rendered useless.

He also like to deposit change in the CD player on my stereo as well. It had a carousal that held 17 CDs, which was all full. Eventually the carousal wouldn't move anymore, and I had to get my stereo taken apart to get the CDs out.

Thanks for letting me remember. He's 11 now. :0

eliana23 said...

My four year old puts his change in his dad's wallet, to be nice. And then it falls out all over when dad tries to spend money. Good times.

elianaosborn.wordpress.com

Jen said...

Dear husband and I were rewatching LOST episodes and seemed to misplace one of the discs. Blame and tearing the house apart ensued with no luck. Next morning I conducted an experiment and handed a disc to my 18 month old son who promptly walked over to our unused cobwebbed relic of a VCR and popped the disc in. LOST was found.

Nancy Sabina said...

Last week there was a coin in every single one of the shoes in our family shoe basket. Always fun as you throw on your shoes in the morning!

Laura said...

Is it wrong that the only thing I could think of is that I wondered if Dexter hid his money there before he went to hiding his blood splatters in the air conditioner? Um, maybe I should watch less Dexter...

DiggyDaddy said...

In the piano. They squeeze them between the keys. I've decided not to think about exactly how much is in there. Hopefully enough to pay for the repairs.

Lefgren Family said...

Luckily most of it makes it into the piggy bank, it's the kind of band that you have to open with a can opener. So once it's in, it's stuck. By the way, I just found your blog and have really enjoyed it. Being a mom of 2 kiddos, a 5 year old girl and a 2 year old son. I have found myself laughing out loud as I have been reading past posts. I can relate with most of what you say.

Anonymous said...

Three weeks after we bought a new car, my 2 year old filled the CD player with coins that were in the car. The dealer charged us $200 to take it out and send it to CA to "fix" it. I had a gaping hole in my new dashboard for three weeks and they kept the coins.

Katie Kendrick said...

My son stores his stash in the unused VCR of our DVD/VCR combo. We found this out when the VCR slot probably became full and my son started putting stuff into the DVD slot. when our DVD started getting scratched and finally getting stuck, my husband opened the DVD/VCR and found a whole plethora of coins, playing cards, paper clips and candy wrappers to name a few. And when quentioned, my 2 year old claimed all of it and said "its mine" and proundly took all of the stash.

Kayna Iverson said...

My friends son used to hide his "racer stripped" undies in the little wall cutout to get to the plumbing of their jacuzzi tub.

Amy said...

Growing up my husband's chair at the table was right about the vent in the kitchen. He was raised receiving his daily little pink flouride pill. He apparently hated them so each morning he would discreetly drop his flouride pill down the vent. When it was finally discovered there were over 300 flouride tablets down the vent...only kids!!

Laurie said...

My twin boys have a night light that is screwed on to the outlet in place of the outlet cover so they supposedly can't mess with it. It has several holes in the top so it doesn't get too hot.

Looking at it one night I thought there were bugs in it. Upon inspection I learned that they had been dropping boogies in it for quite some time! EWWWWW!!!!

statia said...

My son's bed is like an episode of hoarders. Seriously, I change the sheets and I find the most random stuff in there.

My aunt once noticed that her silverware started missing. She was having a repair done and when the guy went to cut a hole in the wall, he found not only her missing silverware, but her class ring, as well as various other valuables. Thankfully, my son isn't quite that into hiding things...yet.

grammaDawn said...

My oldest daughter thought the toilet was a great place to stash things. I'm glad my husband knew enough and could retrieve without having to call a plumber every time.

Tanya said...

When my son was three he poured two buckets full of duplo legos down our heater vent. I was furious and made my husband check all our heater vents. Oh thaaats where the little people animals, cars, and other small toys had gone......!

Sarahviz said...

I found an entire booger collection on my 5 yr old's bedsheets - does that count?

IndigoAvery said...

My 10 month old son has walked off with and hidden his bottle of eye drops. I'm still trying to find it and it's been a week

Amanda said...

When I find my daughter's missing green shirt and pink leggings, I'll let you know. I've been searching for a week.

Erin said...

When my daughter was 3/4 she didn't want to take her asthma pill. So she hid it.....in her nose (luckily it dissolved).
*****
My husband's G'ma liked to hide money but nobody new this till she passed away. They found thousands of dollars hidden all over the house!

Nancy said...

In the heating vents along the walls... We found I while we were tearing up our hard wood floor. I was disappointed, it was only monopoly money..

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