Con Artist

First, I must tell you that boy child has been home from school two days now with strep throat.  He has been miserable, but finally on the mend.  This morning, while getting ready for school, girl child professes that her belly hurts.  This comes on the heels of my announcement that for lunch, the cafeteria would be serving chili, cheese sticks, crackers, salad and fruit.  I'm not going to lie; normally, I would allow her to take her lunch on days where the lunch is less than stellar, but we have no food.  I haven't been grocery shopping so we are out of all the necessities including but not limited to bread, milk, peanut butter, lunch meat...you get the point.  We do, however, still have toilet paper, so all is good!  Since her ailment came after the chili conversation, I knew she was fibbing. 

On to school we went.  I did my two hours of Title 1 reading and just as I am about to get in my car and go home to relieve my mother of infirmary duty, I get a text from the school secretary notifying me that girl child had puked in the bathroom and is in the nurse's office.  Mom of the year award, right.here.  So, slough off to the nurse's office to fetch my poor child that I had deemed a liar just a few hours earlier, eat crow and apologize for not believing her. 

 

I mean, how could I have misjudged that sweet little face this morning so horribly?  Off to home we go.  I make her chicken noodle soup to treat her ailing tummy and tell her just to lay on the couch and get some rest.  All the while, I'm hoping and praying that I come out of this deal unscathed1  About an hour later, I realize she is keeping the soup down, hasn't complained one time about her stomach hurting and has her normal color.  As soon as I began questioning her, I know she has duped me, and her teacher, annndddd the nurse.  She tries to first tell me that she "thought" she threw up but that it might have just been a little mucus (gross, I know).  Ah huh, I see. 

My six year old is a con artist.  She had to REALLY want to stay home.  It took her three hours to convince someone she was sick enough to miss school. If that's not perseverance, I don't know what is! 

On to the punishment.  She is grounded from all electronic devices for a week.  She had to fold the towels and put them away and switch the loads of laundry.  Additionally, she had to clean her room and clean the sink in the bathroom.  I also made her write her teacher a letter admitting that she lied, that she knew she was wrong and it wouldn't happen again.  Probably the worst punishment of all though is she is not allowed to eat her candy that her Aunt gave her yesterday!

Forget terrible two's, we are at the six and full of tricks.  Who knows what the teen years will bring!