Mother’s column: Collecting

I fell for it again. During the holiday, we do groceries at a supermarket that we usually never go to. "Do you collect stickers?" the cashier asks. "Sure", I say, even though I have no idea what the action is about. But I always collect everything until I discover something is useless. Because we spent more than 50 euros on groceries, we receive a large poster to put the stickers on. Usually, it costs a euro, but we get it for free now!

Neline is married and the mother of five: Martha (8), Abel (6), Jolijn (5), Reinout (3) and Sifra (0).

Not really, of course. Three guesses where we do our groceries the rest of the week. And at the end of our holiday, our poster is still not complete. So, once back home, we drive to the next town to get a few more boxes filled with groceries. Soon, our pantry overflows. And still, there are empty spaces on the poster.

Every sticker contains a surprising fact. Especially Abel finds it very interesting, and he is not quite done collecting stickers. But in my opinion, the supermarket has earned enough money from us. Maybe I should write a Facebook post containing all the numbers we are still missing. One day, I take my time to jot down all the stickers we have twice or more. Should I really bother my followers with this? At the last moment, I realise that I could also turn to Marktplaats (the Dutch website to sell second-hand items).

That appears to be a great success. Many collectors are active on the website. "We received the poster from grandpa and grandma, but we still need the stickers", I read for example. Most people want to exchange stickers like I do. There are even philanthropists who offer their whole collection for free if one pays the mailing costs. The only question is how we can complete our collecting while spending as few post stamps as possible.

However, the contact with the fellow sticker collectors leads to some unexpected incidents. After I mail numbers 2, 19 and 47, I receive a message: "Just received your cards, but what was the blond lock of hair for?" Blond lock of hair? I have no idea. But then something starts to dawn. When Jan's mother cut Jolijn's hair for the first time, she collected a lock of hair in an envelope for her photobook. That envelope probably ended up in the drawer with cards and envelopes. Because someone who wastes not, wants not, but can nonetheless lose something.