Bad Cop, Good Cop.

The one thing that helps the early morning wake ups is when the kids wake up cheery and happy. It happens occasionally. When the moon is blue and pig sprout wings. Mostly, I settle for cooperative children in the morning.

What gets my blood boiling in the morning is malingering and whiny. The illusive stomachache and headache that responds wonderfully to the cure all dose from "stay home for the day" bottle.

Evan went to bed last night with a raging fever. So there was a high likelihood that he wasn't going to go to school today. Jordan figured that out through the night and woke up whining that she felt uncomfortable, her tummy and head hurt; the vague triumvirate of excuses.

I told her she could. Her eyes lit up. Then she realised that there was a big 'but' behind it.

BUT
1. She wouldn't get to make sandwiches in school (she was supposed to do it today as a class activity).
2. She would not be allowed to watch television or go out. After all she was sick.
3. She would have to catch up with all the homework she had missed today, tomorrow at Papa's school. (Her Friday afternoon treat is to hang out at Papa's school and play with his students)
4. She would have to re-revise her spelling that was supposed to be today. That would eat into her playing time this afternoon. 

Even with that, she was still weighing it out in her head and she was still coming up on the side of the instant gratification of staying at home now and chuck what happens tomorrow aside.

At 6 in the morning, it takes triple the effort to stick to my guns. And play the bad cop. After all, if she didn't go, it would mean I could have a lie in and I wouldn't need to pick her up from school.

Eventually, I stumbled on the trump card. I told her I wasn't going to write her an excuse letter because I believed she wasn't actually ill. And I wasn't about to lie to her teacher. So she could stay at home, but she would need to explain it to her teacher. 

Perfectly fine to go to school.

She sought me out after she had showered with tears in her eyes. She apologised. I asked what for. She apologised for lying that she was sick so that she could get out of going to school. She apologised that she was going to make me lie to her teacher just so that she could stay home.

I told her, the up side to her going to school when Evan didn't need to was that we would have extra time and if we left early enough, we could perhaps make a run to McDonald's for pancakes before school. That plan was foiled by the McDonald's nearest her school being closed at 7 am in the morning. She settled for a packet of Milo from 7-11. But it seemed to do the trick.

There, my being both the split personalitied bad cop- good cop. It is truly exhausting, especially when it is still dark out and every bone in my body is screaming to go back to bed. And I now owe her a McDonald's breakfast.