I decided yesterday that Colette needs to work on her sense of timing.
Because Katie
was ill yesterday evening, I "cooked" dinner for the kids. Translation:
I took them to Chick-fil-A. Once the girls had settled down to eat
their kids' meals, Colette opened her bag and showed me inside. She
said, "Look, dad. They didn't give me any chicken!" Sure enough, the bag
held only french fries and a toy. So I went up to the counter and got
her the chicken nuggets that the employees ha
d left out of her meal.
After Colette polished off the box of chicken nuggets I had gotten for
her, she pulled a second box out from under the table, held it up to my
face, and shouted, "April Fools!"
While I had been distracted by
the chaos involved in getting three little girls their food, the darn
kid had pulled the original box of chicken out of her sack and put it on
her lap out of sight.
So back up to the counter I went to pay
for the extra chicken nuggets. When I returned to the table, I told
Colette that she would have to reimburse me the $2.87 her joke had cost
me. The young lady, who was already crying, wailed even louder. Her
sisters, meanwhile, explained to her that if she *must* play a joke on
someone, she should let them know it's a joke before it goes too far and
costs the victim money.
So Colette played her first ever April
Fool's joke on the wrong day, and waited too long to reveal that it was a
prank. Timing, dear child, it's all about the timing.
Epilogue:
Colette deeply regretted her actions. She said she didn't have enough
money to pay me back. I told her not to worry about that yet, we'd work
things out. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she said over and over
that she was a bad person because she had made a mistake. I picked her
up, set her on my lap, wrapped my arms around her, and hugged her
tightly. I assured her that she is not a bad person. I told her that
everyone makes mistakes, it's part of being human. She argued that there
are lots of people who don't make any mistakes. I reminded her that
there has only ever been one perfect person to walk the earth. The rest
of us mess up all too frequently. And I kept trying to explain that one
mistake does not a bad person make. That didn't really seem to register
with her, so I just hugged her and told her over and over again that she
is a great kid, that I love her, that she is my special little girl,
and that everything would be okay.
I felt so bad for that well-meaning, pure-hearted, innocent little soul!