Intimidation by Note

At my house you have to watch your stuff. Because I am one of those mean moms that doesn’t buy junk food, the girls will sometimes use their hard-earned money to satisfy their sugar cravings.

But because the sight of sugar is so exciting, every now and then they will pretend that there is even a chance that I purchased, say, the pound of chocolate-covered peanuts hidden in the cupboard and one of them will eat them.

Then there is a holy war when the one of them who bought them goes to eat the beloved chocolate covered peanuts and they are gone. Sometimes there is scratching and biting and words that I didn’t know they knew.

But these are smart, clever girls. And so now they have developed the system of intimidating notes.

Here is how it goes: If you have a tasty item that you need to protect, you must take the time to write an intimidating note and attach it to the item before placing it back in the refrigerator or cupboard.

The overachiever explained to me last night that a funny note will work if it will make the reader laugh. They will give you credit for being clever by not eating your stuff. This method works for her. Last week one of her notes, written on the raspberries she purchased to make smoothies said:

“These are my razzbabies. Don’t eat them because then I won’t have any children.”

Sometimes she is sarcastic (I wonder where she gets that from?). Her note last week on her beloved 100-calorie pack snack box said:

“Don’t eat these. They are to take to my job where I work all day every day without getting paid.” (She is doing an internship for the summer.)

Her sister The Brainiac sticks with the fear factor when writing her notes. I see this morning that she has written a note on the delicious and expensive looking box of Tom’s Mom’s chocolate chip cookies her boyfriend brought back from his trip to Michigan. It says:

“DON’T EVEN DARE!”

I don’t think anyone will be touching those.