The cost of a taxi

I have been trying to explain to little bear how much things cost. This has not been successful so far, but I am persevering.

Little bear would like to take a taxi to the piano lessons. In this weather I can truly understand it, as hanging round in cold bus shelters waiting for unreliable buses is not pleasant. Little bear has never done any of the travelling during the summer, either, so he associates the trip there and back with cold, wet, dark waits. What has made it worse is that I had been changing buses which meant a particularly cold damp wait in a shelter that is built like a wind tunnel. I have changed where we change now.

I sat down and explained to little bear that we couldn't always take a taxi, because it cost money. We only have so much money, and that has to be shared for everything, like food and other treats. I then made a fatal mistake. Little bear has been after some Ben 10 figures. I loathe Ben 10, but most of the other cartoons seem worse. So I pulled up the figures on Amazon and explained that this figure would cost the same as two taxi rides, this figure would cost the same as half a taxi ride - trying to show him that if you spend money on one thing then you do not have it to spend on another.

It didn't work. Little bear couldn't believe his eyes! Look at all these figures - wow, that's a thingummy, and that's a wotsit - yeah, yeah, mum, forget about how much a taxi costs, look at this amazing bit of plastic tat!

I shall persevere.