I Sincerely Hope This Does Not Indicate a Propensity to Always Take the Easy Way Out

This afternoon was Parent/Teacher Conferences. Matthew’s conference was accompanied by a walking report card. For those of you who may not know, a walking report card is when a parent guides their child through a variety of school related tasks so they can get a good idea of how well their child is doing. For the writing portion of Matthew’s report card, he had to write his name, his numbers through 10 and his favorite animal. He zipped through the first two portions and when I asked him what his favorite animal was, he said, “My favorite animal is a giraffe…no, I mean a cat.”

Now I know for a fact that he was lying. He hates cats. They scare him to death. In his defense, he really hasn’t had any experience with animals because he is allergic to dogs and his asthma means he has trouble with cats even though he isn’t technically allergic. But still, I was completely certain that he was fibbing. After all, he wrote an entire book about giraffes just last month. He even had me do a google search to find out what those little horn things on their heads are called. (FYI: they are ossicones.) So I rolled my eyes at him and asked him if he chose cat just because he knows how to spell it. He immediately ‘fessed up, not even a little bit ashamed of himself. And I had to snicker just a little under my breath because my just barely 6 year old is already working the system. I guess it’s a good thing I help him with his homework every day and already know exactly what he is capable of.