I can’t tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue. I stink at singing. I can’t knit, I don’t dance and I have no clue how to twirl a baton.
Yet, my kid still thinks I am cool.
The secret to my parental popularity: Mastering the claw game.
There it is cyberspace; hidden to most, known to few, embraced by kids of all ages, my secret talent of manipulating buttons and a joystick (at the same time) in an attempt to retrieve treats from a glass encased mosh pit of stuffed animals, candy and other plastic paraphernalia.
This mom rocks at the claw game.
I’ve kept my claw skills on the down low in recent months because I don’t get a chance to exercise them as much since our beloved neighborhood Baker’s Square closed up shop. The restaurant housed one of the best claw toy vending machines in the Great Lakes region. It was filled with above-average stuffed and plastic junk and it only cost a quarter to play. The machines at Wal-Mart typically jip you of at least a dollar for a single try.
Lest you think I am hyping my toy retrieval talents for the sake of this post, I will have you know that many a child, who has witnessed my mad metal claw moves, have actually handed me their shiny, sweaty quarters and begged me to successfully scoop up a stuffed Daffy Duck, Care Bear or Scooby-Doo for them to shower with love… for at least the car ride home.
Until last night I never considered using my secret talent to pad my bank account.
However, after reading about the Australian toddler, who climbed into a claw machine to retrieve a stuffed SpongeBob SquarePants toy he really, really wanted, I’m now wondering if I could perhaps profit from my rare plucking abilities.
According to news reports, the 3-year-old boy wiggled past a security panel and climbed into the machine’s retrieval box, up the chute and into the pit of plush toys. Once he got in, the kid made like… well… a kid in a toy machine. He reportedly laughed, played and ate a few lollipops while his mother had a heart attack. I mean, begged him to climb out.
But here’s the part that kills me: Instead of listening to his desperate mother, the feisty tot started throwing toys down the machine’s chute, so children gathered outside could share in his bounty.
In the end, the boy’s mom reportedly coaxed her kid out of the machine before firefighters had to rescue him.
It’s too bad I wasn’t on the scene. I swear I wouldn’t have charged more than 50 bucks to pluck out that boy with my proficient claw skills.
What’s your hidden talent?
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