“Daddy, I’m going outside to play.”
“I thought you were sick.”
“I’m not sick!”
“Ok, then I’m taking you to school.”
“NO!”
“Then you need to stay inside.”
“But I’m not sick!”
“Then you need to go to school.”
“NO!”
He was sick yesterday, and two nights ago he even had a fever, but he seemed pretty recovered to me this morning. It didn’t matter. He delayed long enough for everyone else to leave the house, and now here we sit, locked in a neverending battle between the prospect of being stuck inside all day and the idea of being stuck in school instead.
This has been the conversation at my house for the past several hours. I expect it will be the topic of conversation for the next several hours as well. Somewhere along the way I hope that we learn about things like actions, consequences, decisions, and catch-22s. And I hope even more that the next time he decides not to go to school, it is because he is actually sick.