Why Mall Rats Shouldn't Breed

I have never considered myself a "mall rat." I actually dislike malls. The swarms of pre-teens, the overpriced merchandise...it's just not my thing. So it was rather unusual a few Saturdays ago when we decided to go to the mall during our state's tax holiday to hang out. It was a hot, muggy day, and we needed to get out of the house. And we surprisingly had a good time.

Until that day, Benjamin was completely unaware that the quarter rides actually move. He's always been content to hop on each ride and "drive" it, then move on to the next one. On that particular Saturday, we happened to have 75 cents in spare change with us, so we decided to let him pick a ride. From that day on, he whined and whined about going back to the "money rides," and I knew we'd made a mistake. I tried bribery to help him "earn" rides the following week, which actually backfired. He started having much worse behavior than usual. But he "earned" a few stickers, which meant we could go on a couple of rides again. We went back and he picked his two rides. But he was kind of a monster the rest of the time and wanted to keep going on all of the rides.

Now he thinks we should go to the mall all the time. He even found some old foreign coins sitting in our closet and keeps them with him at all times in a clear plastic bucket. Last night, the coins fell off his bed at least once in the middle of the night which of course disrupted his sleep, and I heard him in there, obsessively accounting for all of them. He gets so mad when Peter tries to come near the coins, and even more mad when we take the coins away for bad behavior. He's been begging me to get him a piggy bank so the coins won't keep falling out.

I should mention that this money obsession isn't all bad. He is excited about paying his tithing ("I'm putting the little money in the glass bowl to give to the Bishop!"). It's also piqued his interest in counting and math. He loves reading the library book I got for him about counting coins. So I'll probably switch up his play money with real pennies and nickels and dimes sometime soon. It's certainly incentive enough for him to help out. I'm just not sure if it would keep perpetuating his recent behavioral problems. Hmmm...