Robbers of Cardamom Town and Trader Joes

 

We have been reading the famous Norwegian book "The Robbers of Cardamon Town" to the kids each night for the past several nights. I read it in English and then we listen to the music in Norwegian.  Leif has fond memories of listening to this story on the radio as a kid and our kids have really liked the story as well and can hardly wait for bedtime each night to see what happens next.  (18 chapters, we read 1 a night).

The book is about three robbers that go into town and steal anything they need from the local stores.  This has brought up a great deal of discussion around stealing and robbing and paying for goods, etc... so much that Christian has become overly concerned about who pays and who doesn't.  Well I had thought we'd done a good job of explaining to him that stealing is really a terrible thing and you could get in big trouble.  Etc...  But apparently he is still unsure of how it all works. 

Today we were at Trader Joes.  I pulled up to the checkout and started to make chit-chat with the checkout guy when Christian comes up and boldly announces to the guy (and for that matter anyone within about 3 aisles of us) "We are going to rob you!"  As if it was a stick up!!

I get a bit panic-y and politely explain that I have money and we have no intention of robbing anything.  But Christian continues to tell the guy that we plan to rob them.  I am feeling like a terrible parent as I realize everyone around is listening to this conversation and so I try to explain that we've been reading this book about robbers and that Christian has had all sorts of questions, etc. etc..  The check-out guy (thankfully he was very cool) just looked at Christian and asked if he like some stickers instead of robbing them.  And thankfully Christian agreed!

Yikes!