We Work Hard for the Money

I took the kids to the mall today to buy mommy's Mother's Day present. I know... I put stuff off. Anyway - as we were standing by the fountain, throwing our change into the pool, some dude comes up to me with a clip board and says, "Yo - you wanna make $20 per kid, cash." Usually I'm very adept at ignoring people at the mall, but this peaked my curiosity.

Me: How?

Dude: I work for a child research company and we need children between ages 3 1/2 years and 4 years old. Do they fit the criteria?

Me: As a matter of fact, they do. What would they have to do?

Dude: Just play with a lighter for a few minutes to see if they can figure out the child safety lock.

Me: (doing the math and weighing that against my parenting morals) $80? Really? Just to play with a lighter for a few minutes?

Dude: Yeah - but the lighters don't have butane in them and can't light. We just need to see if they can make it click.

Me: Dude - sign us up. Where do we go?

We proceeded to follow the dude upstairs to this little Research Center in the mall. Did anyone else know that these places existed?? I could quit my job at this rate! We went in, the kids sat down at a little table and the dude doled out the lighters while I filled out some paperwork. By the time I was done filling in all of the forms, they were handing me $80 and none of the kids were able to make the lighter work.

Woo hoo! Off to the Toy Store!