'Dad reminded me of the rules—it was his to keep': 8-year-old gets clever revenge on Dad for stealing their money from the dryer

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 20, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Finders keepers! It's a rule that can be the best or the worst, depending on if you're the finder or the person who lost something valuable. Finding a $20 bill on the ground is amazing, because there's no way of proving who really lost it. But being the person who went to do laundry and suddenly realized that $20 bill had flown out of their pocket makes you really dislike the "finders keepers" rule. 

This 8-year-old found themselves on both sides of the rule, starting with a standoff with their dad. As parents, you spend a good deal of time doing chores for your kids. Laundry alone can take hours each week: sorting the clothes, pulling tissues and food scraps and coins out of the pockets, running the washer, then folding all these clothes and putting them away. So when that parent finds a few dollars in their kid's pocket, it's basically just the parent tax, right? Well, for this kid, losing $10 was devastating. That can be a ton of money for a child! They shared how they eventually got back at their dad, and you can read the full story of malicious compliance below. 

Up next, get into the fall spirit with some autumnal incidents, like one person who was dismayed to discover that "'Pick your own pumpkins' [are] literally pumpkins placed in a field." 

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  • 01
    'My dad discovered that he was short a large sum of money, and tore apart his office and bedroom looking for it' ED ST
    via Annie Spratt on Unsplash+
  • 02
    Dryer finds are mine! 8 year old vs dad. In eons past, I was once a youth. Growing up my parents were pretty big on teaching their best and only child how to do things himself. This, in parent speak, meant that I was taught chores very young- I have been helping do laundry, dishes, the lawn, and cleaning since early elementary school.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 03
    We all took care of the laundry, doing everyone else's along with ours when needed. So, there were rules in place- Any change found in the dryer became the property of the person unloading the dryer. 8 Year old Bailey was extremely distraught one day to find that my fortune of TEN WHOLE DOLLARS had gone through the wash, and was claimed out of the dryer by my dad. I. was. FURIOUS.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 04
    I demanded back the $10, but my lovely dad reminded me of the rules, it was his to keep- fair game. At this point I decided that I would be the only person to unload the dryer. My parents were very pleasantly surprised that for months they never had to pull out the clothes and start the folding process (since I'd just grab the laundry and fold while binging Cartoon Network).
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 05
    Eventually, what started as a desperate attempt to guard my various petty treasures gave way to the perfect opportunity for malicious compliance. You see, this was the very early 2000s, my dad wasn't yet keen on keeping all his cash on cards. So he kept most of his money in cash.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 06
    On this particular day, he left $200 in his pocket, and, doing the laundry meant that it was mine! ALL MINE! I silently stuffed the cash in my tiny coin bank in my room, pleased with my lucrative haul.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 07
    Eventually, my dad discovered that he was short a large sum of money and tore apart his office and bedroom looking for it, before he recalled that he had left it in his jeans pocket. Despite my subtly, I was quickly confronted. The rule was rescinded, and I was only allowed to keep $50, but again- to an 8 year old, this was a king's ransom. I had emerged, mostly victorious.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 08
    Equivalent-Sa... mostly victorious At 8 years old, that's big.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 09
    fancybeadedp... I used to give my first grader a $20 bill for allowance. Then I'd do the laundry and give her the same $20 the next week. And the next. Went on for ages before I felt bad and clued her in. She stopped keeping folding money in her pockets.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 10
    Chikasha My dad used to play a game with my sister and I when we were around 7 and 10 ish. We had to clean the house, vacuum, mop, collect laundry, wash dishes and counter tops, all of it. The reward was everything in his wallet. He always had at least a little cash, and usually we'd get about 20 bucks a piece. He took
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 11
    credit for cleaning, a win- win. Except one time. One time, it was near the end of the month, and mom was still at work for a few hours so he offered the gamble that was the clean up game, and we took that challenge. It took us about 2 hours to clean everything. He was sitting
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 12
    on his computer when we told him we were done. He reached for his wallet, and a look of horrific realization came over his face. Rent. He had rent in cash in his wallet. My sister and I each got $350 as a 7 and 10 year old, and he never offered the gamble again.
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 13
    njdevil956 This is the rule at our house. Every once in a while I leave $ 15-20 in my pocket. Wife dances around flashing the bills and heads out for a Starbucks. Keeps her happy
    via u/Baileythenerd
  • 14
    roman_fyseek Our rule was "Laundry lady strikes it rich" regardless of the gender of said laundry lady. At any rate, I found my dad's $100 in the laundry. He needed it *that day*, so we came to a compromise: I loaned him my $100 bill and he gave me a new $100 on the next payday. I was 10.
    via u/Baileythenerd

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laundry dads dryer cash malicious compliance kids malicious-compliance-reddit dad chores family malicious compliance reddit money children
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