When First Born was three, her teacher asked me if we were planning a trip to Africa. The teacher said all First Born talked about was this upcoming trip to Africa and how excited she was.
My response: “No we are not planning a trip to Africa.”
My thought: Why in the world would you believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a three-year-old?
The next year, First Born’s new teacher pulled me aside and asked the following, “Hey, I just have to ask you this… do you have an older child from a previous marriage or something? Your daughter is always talking about her older sister. She tells us things they do together, how old she is, where she lives, all kinds of things.”
My response: “No.”
My thought: Why in the world would you believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a four-year-old?
Then, it happened again the following year.
That day, I received two phone calls from her school.
Phone call #1- “Mr. G, this is First Born’s teacher, she is insisting that you are going on this field trip with us today. I told her you would have mentioned it to me if you were chaperoning, but she said YOU WERE GOING. I told her I would call you to double check.”
My response: “I told First Born probably twenty-five times this morning that I would not be able to go on the field trip with her today.”
My thought: Why in the world would you believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a five-year-old?
Phone call #2- “Mr. G, this is one of the chaperones from the field trip. We are having lunch and your daughter says she is allergic to chocolate milk. I just wanted to check with you to see if this were true or not.”
My response: “Absolutely not. She loves loves chocolate milk, in fact she usually orders it when we go out to eat. I have no idea why she would say that.”
My thought: Whatever. I give up.
-Pete
