Thought for the day: What have you stolen from your parents’ house?

OK, “stealing” is such an ugly word. We can use “appropriated.” “Borrowed and just kept forgetting to bring back.” Whatever helps you sleep at night.

The question popped up when my co-worker AnneMarie mentioned the paperclip-holder she has from her mom; the little desk set kind with the magnet in it that holds a paperclip in perpetual popup. She also has an electric pencil sharpener from the same source.

That got me to thinking, and all I can come up with is a handful of books and some records. The records consist chiefly of a Peter, Paul and Mary album that had belonged to my father and a couple of Christmas albums, one  Julie Andrews and another an all-star collection called “Great Songs of Christmas,” which I think my mom told me was a promotional handout at some gas station back in the late ’60s. I particularly loved the New Christy Minstrels’ version of “We Need a Little Christmas” as a kid. The books: My mother’s copies of C.S. Lewis’ “More than a Carpenter” and Marjorie Holmes’ “Two From Galilee.” My father’s paperback of “The Odyssey.” I probably have others, but my guilty conscience is blocking my memories.

I can’t help wondering what will be left when the Princesses leave home. They’re already well-practiced little thieves. I had to buy a new hairbrush because I could never find mine; in spite of buying each of them their own New! Shiny rose-colored! Just their size! hairbrushes, they preferred my beat-up black one. Now they eye my new one covetously. I’ve had to issue Warnings Most Dire about leaving it alone.

My Harry Potter books wind up buried under the bunk bed covers and left in backpacks. Occasionally, I find silverware in the yard. They’re still a little small for my clothes (and likely wouldn’t want them anyway; nothing I’ve ever worn has been in style no matter what year it is), but heaven help me when they’re old enough to ask for the car keys.

What ill-gotten goods haunt your closets?