As usual three automatic pencils, a couple of lead pencils and two pens were nowhere to be found. And my kids are raised now - technically I am no longer supporting them. From the day the kids arrived in this world I have noticed a steadily growing number of things that parents can't have. As babies they would pull pens from my shirt pocket and drop them on the floor when I wasn't looking. Engineers, writers - some people must have a writing implement.
Ideas strike in restaurants and get written on napkins.
No pen - the idea of a lifetime might get forgotten in the flurry of raising children. But with a pen in your pocket you can write it down, take it home and save it forever in a drawer, to be taken out and admired years later. I learned years ago to put them in my pants pocket so the babies didn't get them, and so I didn't look like a nerd. To children, pencils are just one more item in a long list of items that have no value, are totally expendable and infinitely replaceable. They just lay them down when they are done with them and immediately forget where they are.