I use to steal money. Yup! That’s right. I would wait until my mom wasn’t paying attention and I would swipe a twenty dollar bill right out of her purse. I was 10. She never noticed which was so cool! I continued my bill swiping late into my twenties. Embarrassing and awful, I know. But I am here to admit the gory details of my mismanagement of money and I believe that is where it started; stealing, quite innocently from my parents.
You see, it wasn’t just the bill swipe… it was the searching of pockets after my dad got home from work (yes, still 10). I thought it was quite clever, actually. He would leave change in his suit pockets and I would find ways in which to redistribute the change. Call it lets say my own little ‘economic stimulus package.’ Other than the fact that I was lifting money from my parents (stealing seems so strong) what is curious to me still, to this day, is why they never noticed? They weren’t playing dumb. They just didn’t have a clue.
We were not rich but we had money. We had everything we ever needed growing up. We were spoiled. My parents were generous and wanted us to have what we wanted because their parents weren’t as capable of giving them what they wanted. I don’t think my parents ever managed a budget. If they did, they would know that twenty-dollar bills went missing mysteriously, often.