Kiddie Rides in Shopping Centres

Hate them. Never gonna put my $2 in for my kid to get a stupid ride. Yu-Jin wants to ride in every one that we pass. Fine, sit in it son. Pretend that you are driving somewhere. But I'm not going to waste my hard-earned dosh on it.

Obviously there is another angle to this - the guilt trip. Many of them display prominent messages that they are raising money for charities.

A funny thing happened a few weeks ago when we went to Joondalup, about 40 kms north of where we live. I had to take some money out of the bank (control yourself people - I don't do this often) and when I came back Yu-Jin was just finishing a ride on one of these machines. Can't remember if I was going to blast my poor wife over this or not but another father grabbed his kid from the machine and thanked me. "Yeah, no worries mate," I thought. It wasn't me that paid. Another father had paid the $2 and Yu-Jin and some other kid got a ride for free.

At least Yu-Jin can grow up knowing that he has been for a ride on one of those machines. Not paid for by his frugal bastard of a father tho'.