A lesson gone horribly wrong

My husband just tried to teach Nathan the evils of gambling. They went to Fred Meyer together and Nathan saw one of those stuffed animal machines as they walked in. You know, the ones with the claw that you move around and try to grab an animal.

Nathan immediately launched into begging mode. He has a favorite stuffed elephant. His name is Loeshie. In the animal machine Nathan saw another elephant and just HAD TO HAVE IT because Loeshie needs a little brother.

So the lightbulb in Dave's head goes off. It's a perfect teaching moment! They're walking through the store and Nathan finds a coloring book that he likes. Dave gave him the choice. He could buy the coloring book or he could have 50 cents to put into the stuffed animal machine. (Because we all know that they're rigged and nobody ever wins on the first try. Or the second.)

Nathan chose the 50 cents. So, they walk out of the store to the machine. The whole time Dave is prepping Nathan. Nobody ever wins, you're just throwing away your money, you're not going to end up with anything. He was trying to avoid the inevitable 4 yr old meltdown that would happen when he lost his money and didn't get anything for it. He figured this would teach him that people who gamble, generally will leave with nothing. No money, no prize.

So Nathan feeds his quarters into the machine and starts manipulating the claw. 50 cents later, the lesson failed. Loeshie now has a little brother and my son is the claw master.