The art of free

There's nothing like getting something for nothing. And that is even more true as a stay at home mom. Luckily, kids are just the ticket for getting things for free. Storytimes, readings, parties, the calendar never runs dry.

Take this weekend. Saturday morning I let J sleep in, so I decided to take the girls over to The Greatest Place on Earth...uh, I mean Target. They were having a Dr. Suess reading event. We arrived, snagged a balloon and a gift bag for each girl and sat down to listen to the employees read Dr. Suess books. Great way to kill an hour and the gift bags included a snack, a drink, and a few toys. Nice.

Now free events are obviously a marketing tactic, and someone once told me I was a marketer's wet dream. Yup, I pretty much never leave one of these events without at least a cup of coffee or a book for the girls.

And I certainly have never left Target empty-handed. The reading was strategically placed outside the kids' section, so as the girls listened to the stories, my eyes wandered and created a shopping list in my head. Sadly, I realized I had left my wallet behind, so I actually had to leave without any purchases....but I may have returned later that day to pick up the items on my list. I mean, we needed ketchup. And napkins. And a shirt. And a new purse. And....oops.

Later that day, I left to get a haircut and told J about an event at the local toy store - a birthday party for Elmo. Little A is pretty obsessed with Elmo these days. To get her to put a diaper on, I have to bribe her with Elmo's image on her Pampers and let her hold it and squeal "Elmo." So this was right up her alley. J said it was a cute event. Big A hugged Elmo, Little A high-fived him, they had some free cake, walla. Except that somehow Big A talked J into buying her a Hello Kitty nail set. Which included fake nails. For a 3-year-old. And that cost $18. Jeez, I thought I was the money-waster in the family?

You know, now that I'm writing this, I'm starting to see a pattern. Maybe "free" events are not really the thing for our family. They seem to be costing us some serious money.