Year 4, Day 279

“I’m not gonna take a nap at school,” Miles declared, unsolicited, as we drove to daycare this morning.

“Oh you don’t think so, huh?” I replied, exceedingly skeptical.

“Mommy said I don’t have to,” Miles said, digging out his current catchphrase.

I decided to call his bluff. “Should we call Mommy and see what she has to say about that?”

“Yeah,” Miles said, with little hesitation.

Miles’s frequent game of “Mommy said/Daddy said” has trapped him in a number of transparent lies lately, and we’re trying to demonstrate for him whenever possible not only that lying is bad, but that it is ultimately futile where we’re concerned.

Jaclyn answered the phone.

“Listen,” I said. “I have Miles here and he claims that he isn’t going to take a nap at school today and that YOU agreed with him.”

“Oh, HE said that.” Jaclyn agreed with that much at least.

“And did you agree to it?”

“I just said, ‘Okay, Miles‘.”

“Ah,” I said. I glanced into the mirror at Miles. “Well that isn’t quite Mommy agreeing with you, Miles.”

“Yeah, it is!” he said defensively. I can’t really fault him for not being able to detect Mommy’s sarcasm.

Fortunately, there was still one more hurdle he had to clear in his quest to defy sleep expectations at daycare. When his teacher came to the door upon his arrival, I looked down at him.

“Well, tell her!”

Guess who was suddenly sheepish and silent. All that big talk went away pretty quick!

Still, I wanted to make sure there was no confusion. “He said he’s not taking a nap at school today,” I told her.

“Oh, is that right??” she said. “Well we’ll just see what happens when you curl up in your blanket!”

Miles didn’t attempt a counter-argument.