Excuses

It is amazing how kids can come up with some excuses just so they can avoid doing the things you want them to do.

Last summer, two and half year old Evan could already swim by himself with a bubble and he loved jumping into the water. In fact, he loved water so much that whenever he got into the pool, he would laugh and giggle, did not mind water splashing onto his face or him choking on the water at all.

However, for various reasons we did not swim over the winter and he just started a new class last week. To our surprise, he was crying in front of the teacher, did not even want to go into the water, let alone jump into it which was what the teacher asked them to do.

So we took him swimming at the Y last week trying to let him remember that he was not afraid of water. He was laughing and giggling again but just wouldn’t jump into the pool.

I asked him: “Evan, can you jump into the pool for mommy?”
He said: “No. I will slide.”

“But why?”

“There is shark in the pool, he is going to bite me.”

“Where is shark? There is no shark.”

“Yes, there is. It is there.” He pointed to the middle of the pool.

When I pick up Olivia from Christopher’s house this Sunday after her sleepover, she was sharing a piece of pizza with Christopher’s brother they just got from Costco. Christopher ordered the hot dog. But seeing Olivia and Danny both eating pizza, he wanted the pizza too and was upset since they did not have one for him to eat right away.

So I said to Olivia: “Why don’t you share your pizza with Christopher?”

She apparently didn’t want to give up her favorite food: “But this pizza already got my germs on it.”