Tuesday, November 01, 2005

fear of loose change

My father has an odd phobia of loose change. He hates carrying the heavy things, so he automatically gives it away. While staying in Japan, he inevitably needs coins at least twice a day in order to buy train tickets. The alternative is to use a bill to buy tickets, which would give him even more of these dreaded, weighty coins. In order to help him get over his phobia, which he stubbornly refuses to deal with, I've started a tough love approach. When he asks me for coins, I refuse to provide them. It's the classic illustration of consequences.

"If you give away all your coins, you won't have any left for the trains. Which will mean you will end up with more coins. So you might as well get over it and start carrying a coin purse."

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