The Mistake That Broke The Bank

What do you get when you mix a heavy metal door stop, a hardwood floor, and a four-year old with a lot of pent up energy?  Thankfully, the damage wasn't too bad.  I didn't even notice it when I came home from work.  My wife came in to tell me as I was reading books to my son before bed.  He knew what was coming and couldn't look at me or tell me himself what happened.  We pay our son a weekly allowance for his chores, and when he breaks something he has to help pay for it from his allowance.  It's usually not much.  He has been very diligent in saving his money.  I usually spent my allowances the moment I got them.  He's been so good at saving, in fact, that over time he had to have saved quite a bit of money by any four-year old standard.  Tonight, however, was pretty serious.  We took about half of what he had saved, partly because it would be expensive to repair, and partly to indicate to him the seriousness of the mistake.  The disappointment on his face when we showed him how much of his savings he lost indicated that the point was taken.  On the one hand, it was heartbreaking for us to take that much, knowing how hard he'd been saving.  On the other hand, he seemed relieved that he could do something to remedy a huge mistake that was probably weighing on him all day.  Tough lesson for all of us to learn.