Since his class at studied the California gold rush, my youngest child has been fascinated with gold.
He has panned for gold with a gold panning kit we bought for the kids. He has read books about gold. He has even inquired whether he could find gold in the creek at .
Above all else, he began using the expression “worth your weight in gold” every chance he got.
Find out what's happening in Belmontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
If I made him a sandwich, he said, “Dad, you’re worth your weight in gold.”
If I took a knot out of his shoelaces, he said, “Dad, you’re worth your weight in gold.”
Find out what's happening in Belmontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Since his class had the unit on the California gold rush, I’ve been told I’m worth my weight in gold a few dozen times.
Recently, when my youngest child was telling me I was worth my weight in gold, his older brother chimed in that I would probably be worth a billion dollars in gold.
“I admit I’m carrying around a few extra pounds,” I said to my teen son. “But do you really believe I’d be worth anywhere near a billion dollars in gold?”
“You’re a big guy, Dad,” my teen son said.
“You have to be kidding me. Even with the price of gold where it is, I can’t weigh as much as a billion dollars in gold,” I said.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” my teen son said.
After finding the price for a troy ounce of gold, my teen son verified my weight. He put me on a scale, not wanting to take my word for it the way the DMV does. After a little number crunching, we had my weight in gold.
It turns out that I’m worth around $6 million dollars in gold.
“I told you I wouldn’t be worth a billion dollars in gold,” I said to my teen son.
“Yeah, but you could stand to lose about $600,000 worth of weight,” my teen said. “I’m only worth $2.4 million in gold.”
Throughout the whole ordeal I was pretty jolly, but to tell the truth there’s nothing quite as cruel as to be told you’re overweight to the tune of $600,000 worth of gold.
My youngest, having discovered how much gold is worth per ounce, has started to use the expression less and less, and never for anything trivial.
I took him out so he could ride his scooter. I was expecting his familiar refrain, but he didn’t give it to me.
After going several days without him using the expression, I asked, “Aren’t I still worth my weight in gold?”
“Nah. That’s a lot of money,” he said.
So while my youngest has stopped telling me I’m worth my weight in gold, I still have to live with the fact that my weight in gold is $6 million and rising.
If the price of gold keeps going up like it has been, who knows, my weight in gold just might reach a billion dollars.
