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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Brilliant! If only I'd thought of it...

Yesterday, I got a call from Elisha:

"Mommy, my tummy hurts"

"Do you need to throw up? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"No, Mommy, my tummy just hurts"

Now if that isn't an ambiguous complaint I don't know what is.

The school reported no fever.

So what to do? Do I go get him? Leave him there? What happens if he pukes all over his desk? At home, little Mr. Elisha is the Boy Who Cried Wolf. His "tummy hurts" all the time, especially when it's time to clean up.

But he's never called me before. So I felt torn. I told the staff that I needed to drive Dovi to school (I was on the highway doing just that) and I wouldn't be back in the neighborhood for about an hour (truth? I needed to go to Meijer. Any buy 25 boxes of Barilla Pasta for 1 cent each. Priorities, folks!) I told them I'd swing by school when I got back and we'd assess then, and they sent him back to class.

Well a friend of mine (should I identify you? Don't want to embarrass you) had a brilliant idea. This is what I did.

I went to school and got him from his classroom to chat. I asked him how he was feeling.

"Maybe I need to go home, Mommy"

"Well Elisha, if you go home, you'll need to put on your pjs and get into bed"

"Well Mommy, I haven't had lunch yet"

"After lunch you'll need to get into bed (and here comes the brilliant part) AND Elisha, since it is such a beautiful day outside, I was planning on taking you guys to Slurpees this afternoon. But if your tummy feels yucky, we can't do that. Slurpees are not good for upset tummies"

I could see the wheels turning in his little head.

"Hmmm Mommy, I think I'll be ok. I think I can stay at school the rest of the day"

Kiss, hug, and off he scampered to his class.

And yes, we went to Slurpees. In order for this method of mental manipulation to work, one must be willing to fulfill their end of the bargain. So we strolled to Slurpees at 6:30 pm. Why on earth do kids insist on combining all of the repulsive Slurpee flavors? Don't they know that Coke with a dash of Sprite is the preferred Slurpee?

What kind of Slurpee do you like?

7 comments:

Heidi @ Tayterjaq's Rebels said...

I am a plain slurpee person myself. Anything red or blue works for me.

Great idea! I will often make sure my kids know what they will miss after school if they cannot go TO school. Just today my 5 yo, who is at home by her choice, asked if she could play with the neighbors (who are home schooled). I said, if you are too sick to go to school, you are too sick to play with friends. (I don't often let my kids make the choice but she was right on the border of stay home or go and I couldn't decide. So I asked her how she felt and she wanted to stay home...usually her choice is school so I decided that tipped the scale towards staying home)

Unknown said...

i actually have a coupon for a free slushie that i have to use soon, but we only have 2 kosher flavors here: mountain dew and coke. i go for the coke.

Shosh said...

now which one of your friends would come up with a brilliant idea like that?
:)
I like cherry mixed with coke. Cherry coke! I took T yesterday. She mixed orange, blue raspberry, and kiwi strawberry.
EW.

Rayli said...

the most interesting part to me was the barilla pasta for a penny cuz when i get it for 88 cents i jump for joy!

oh and im a sucker cuz i take my kids home from school when they have "stomach aches" all the time.

Estie said...

Rayli-I was thinking the same thing! Oh, and the rainbow colored Slurpee mixes make me feel ill. Yuck.

Miriam said...

Yes those rainbow slurpees are gross- Ruvie does that too! I have to agree with Shosh- I make cherry coke. What is worse though than the rainbow slurpee nastiness is Ruvies new hobby of dipping everything into his drinks- think ketchup covered french fries in milk- EEEEWWW!

Unknown said...

Did Benjie ever tell you about the time I puked on my first grade teacher's desk - now that is one you never want to repeat in your childhood.