Be Careful What You Wish For...

Today I heard possibly the strangest thing I've ever heard my wife say to one of our children:

"You'd better be puking by 10 o'clock or you'll be in big trouble!"

So now I better explain.

This morning, my nine-year-old daughter woke up saying she had a pain in her tummy. She actually does that quite often. Mostly because she eats about as much as a malnourished mayfly. So generally, I give her a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, she eats at least part of it, and she's good to go.

Today, however, she was insisting that she didn't feel well. She was giving us the face. The 'I don't feel well' face. However, the problem is that kids know how to make the face even when they're NOT not feeling well. Generally we're pretty good at figuring out if a kid is really sick or not.

I was at the point where I wasn't sure if she actually wasn't feeling well, or just didn't want to go to school. My wife told her to go downstairs to visit her grandma, and seemed to be leaning towards letting her stay home from school.

That's when my wife, uncertain about the child's sick/not sick status, plants her tongue firmly in her cheek, and gives the child the line. The 'better be throwing up' line. With a little smile. Meaning, if you stay home from school, you better really *be* sick.

The child pipes up, "But I don't feel like I have to throw up! I just don't feel well!" Ah. A chink in the armour. We send her to school. She doesn't complain.

And she doesn't throw up at 10 am.

Unfortunately, she *does* throw up at 11:30.

At school.

Whoops.

So, be careful what you wish for. It might come true.