Help. If you were a three year old, where would you hide £100??

[Crapuccino]

MIL came on Friday, stayed, and went back home this afternoon. She's just now called to say that she has discovered herself £100 lighter (five £20 notes). Apparently she left said notes on a low shelf where toddler had easy access FFS. She swears she has searched all her own possessions from top to bottom and can't find the bloody money. So, where might you put £100 if you were three??

Thanks all. Whilst I was getting DS to sleep DH pretty much tore the house down to its studs and even pulled all the books off the bottom three shelves, then scoured the garden and car, but so far at least, nothing. He's pretty unhappy and even suggested that maybe we could "find" the £100 to make her feel better. I'm going to leave the topic alone for the rest of the night and maybe raise it again tomorrow or the day after when he's had time to think it through. He'd had such a good weekend with his mum, too, and now we're back to talking about whether she might have the first stages of dementia or not and how to proceed from here.

Fingers crossed it turns up in some totally random, inexplicable place in the coming.

Were the notes laid flat, folded or rolled?

Flat - I suspect posted somewhere - between floorboards, down the back of shelves or drawers. Or inside a book...
Folded probably similar - but take into account the different dimensions...
Rolled - could be anywhere - my DDs favourite was inside wellies (but only in very dry weather when they would never be used) or somewhere something would just fit.
As a child we had a mystery that all the knives (eating - not sharp ones!) seemed to be disappearing. DBs were the suspected culprits but my parents had no idea where they were putting them ..until the sewers blocked... They discovered the manhole cover on the drive had a thin narrow gap - just the right size to post a knife down but too narrow for a spoon or fork . There was quite a collection down there apparently and a couple wedged up started the blockage . (I've just realised something - that cutlery was a wedding present and they are still using it ...and they don't seem to be short of knives... I am now never going to be able to eat anything there again...)

When I was that age my mum said I once hid £20 in a gap in the floor board (said I pulled the corner of the carpet up and stuck the money down, but I showed them where)

I also put £10 in the the where a door clicks shut there was a gap in our livingroom door one and I put it in there

*in the coming days...!

unlucky83: Were the notes laid flat, folded or rolled?

I can only guess based on MIL's usual habits but unless it's a ridiculous wedge of money (she keeps those kicking about at home too because who uses banks ) then typically she folds them in four, so that'd be a fairly fat bunch.

That knife story is a thing of beauty.

From the other end of life, when my mum was 90 and did similar:
tucked between the pages of a book

In the toy oven, dolls house, toy garage or the kitchen bin. Don't dismiss the bin!

Could it have been "posted" out through the letterbox? (Bitter experience)

We have this issue with DD but with our phones instead of money. DH 'lost' his the other week and DD had kindly posted it out of the door, it had bounced right across the driveway and under our car, how it wasn't broken was beyond me! And today it was my turn to 'lose' my phone, found that in the Thomas the tank engine jigsaw box! It's so hard when DD hides things as she was non-verbal up until recently so communication is strained (she's nearly 4) when we asked her about my phone she did say Thomas bless her but we didn't connect it to the jigsaw box in another room.
Hope the money turns up.

Under the rug?

Put a couple of notes on the same low shelf and watch what he does with them?

There is a hidden pocket in our sofa (inside beneath the arm). I think it's there to catch anything such as remote or book or phone that off the arm. Anything that goes missing in our house turns up there. Check if you have one; they are tough to open.

This is such a funny thread title (yes I have dc who hide things).

Do you have wooden decking outside?Those gaps are a pain in the arse. DD used to post her bloody hair clips through them.

When my mum came to stay once she went home and sweared blind her new gold earrings were in our house somewhere! I hunted high and low and about 3 wks later she found them somewhere random at home. The money will turn up eventually...

No decking, thank heavens. We do have wooden flooring in the sitting room but it looks like it has something underneath, perhaps cloth or something as some sort of draft guard? (Who knew!) I can only see one gap that notes could have been posted down, by the doorway, and after much squinting with a phone light, and then experimentally sticking an old receipt down and being able to see it very easily, I've concluded that it's unlikely to have gone down there.

I'm also thinking toilets are unlikely, since the buttons on top of both are hard to press. Aside from that, I've run through every location suggested on this thread with DH to check that we've covered everything, but still no joy. All night long he's been randomly popping up off the sofa to go look under cushions and in toy compartments and behind curtains. I gave it up as a lost cause hours ago but I don't think he's ready to let it go yet. Might make him a nice breakfast tomorrow morning.

Toybox? Laundry basket? Or in our household the favourite hiding place was the toolbox. I think its because they knew mummy didnt go in there often

Washing machine drawer? That's the go to place in this house.

Mine would throw it in the bin.

Like others have suggested, have you tried giving DC a note n see where it's put?

I'll get DH to give it another go tomorrow, Agadooo but when I tried showing him some today he told me they were for daddy and took them straight to DH. Still, that's not the same as leaving some lying in the same place.

Years ago on holiday dsis who was 3 at the time (now 23) hid all our holiday spends... mum searched everywhere; found it eventually inside a pillow case!

Are you sure there was £100? Why would she take it out and leave it there anyway?

I don't think it's there, if it ever existed in the first place x

PeaFace The really brutal version of events is that the £100 never existed, or existed weeks ago, elsewhere, and she's more confused than she's willing to let on. DH asked her why she took it out, and her explanation was that she was looking for her phone in her handbag and started turfing things out onto the shelf so that she could see better, so out came tissues, money, keys, etc. It's entirely possible, I guess. She does keep her handbag down next to the end of the sofa since that end seat is "hers" when she's here, and DS's bookshelf would be the obvious place to quickly put things.

Have you tried looking at it the other way - that it might be MIL who moved it somewhere and has forgotten where she put it?