The very same evening, the three of us went strolling to nearby mall after dinner. When we reached there, we saw quite a few of the coin-slot toy machines or what-ever-you-call-it. You know, those where you slot in a coin (in this case $1) ,turn the knob, and WALA …a ball (with a little toy inside) is released to the new owner.

These machines sell the toys by themes..i.e. one machine may be selling all characters from Transformers, another Ninja turtles…and so on.

We spotted one from the CARS Movie theme …. and the rest you can imagine.

WRONG! My son did not cry to get one. In fact it was my wife & I who were excited! You see we have gotten him one before, and we thought he love it so much we wanted to get more for him when we see another of these machines..hehe.

So we ended up buying 4 for him..WILLINGLY! and for that $4, we (or rather the toys) brought him so much joy.

Not so much my son though. For him, anything with four wheels is his "weakness". He absolutely ADORES cars. And needless to say, he LURRRRRRVES the DISNEY PIXAR MOVIE : CARS.

For his recent REWARD trip, I have actually set aside about $60~$80 for a toy of his choice..thinking that he would pick up a Playmobil Campervan which I have egging him on for days to like it.

When we got to the shop, before I could even interest him on the whole array of Playmobil on the shelf, he was already transfixed by a simple 6 inches long Fire Engine (for which its doors can’t even be opened!) placed along the path towards my beloved Playmobils.

No cajoling was possible to "lure" him away that Fire Truck. He doesn’t want to move on to the other shelfs and just simply wanted that !@#$% FIRE TRUCK!

I was caught off guard by his preference. My wife reminded me quietly that we wanted to get him a toy of his choice. So we eventually bought him that !@#$% FIRE TRUCK. Damn $10 Fire Truck.

He was overjoyed. I was devastated.

LESSON LEARNT
Isn’t this such a poignant lesson on the simple innocence of childhood…and for the matter, LIFE as well? The cost of a toy does not matter a single bit. What matters is does it bring JOY to the child. A cheap toy is no less worthy than an expensive one…. The SECRET lies in whether the child likes it.

PS: There is a little twist to this story. Will continue in another post