She's HIS daughter...trust me

Last night the girls' were preparing speeches for their classes. Maggie was practicing a speech about her favorite game and La Nina was preparing a demonstration of "how to make a Cootie Catcher". In case you aren't in the know, Cootie Catchers have been around since I was a kid. They are these origami things, that little girls use to predict the fortunes or dare their friends to do silly things. They aren't complicated to make, so while I thought she should just teach her classmates dance step or two, I wasn't going to interfere.

She practiced last night by making two or three of these things, but she had one that was her demonstration "Cootie Catcher". At the end of one of her practice sessions, I asked her to read me the fortunes/dares. I don't know what made me ask that question, call it Mother's intuition or a distant memory from my childhood, but I suddenly realized, those fortunes/dares could be trouble. Our conversation went like this:

"Sweetie, read me your Cootie Catcher."

"No."

"I'm not kidding, I want you to read me what you wrote."

"I'm not going to read it."

Now the Dad is chiming in: "Read it now."

"No."

"Why?" I finally thought to ask her.

"Because it's inappropriate." (Really, she said this.)

"Then, you better start reading or start ripping it up, because that isn't going into your class tomorrow."

She started reading. "Read a book in a day." Nothing wrong. "Read 10 books in a day." Okay, pretty innocent. "Watch Disney Channel" Safe. "Kiss a boy." Excuse me? "Fart." What? "Fart 100 times in a day". that is not going to work. "Pee in the bathroom." And she's going to read this in class? "Pee in your pants." OKAY, let the shredding begin.

Then, she did something really odd. She said, "Mom, I'll just make another one." And she ripped up her demo. Easy as that. And that's when I got scared. I realized, she could whip one of these things out, write anything she wanted and take it into class and I'd have no clue.

We had a long talk about what was appropriate and since she was clear on inappropriate, I figured, maybe, just maybe she could be trusted. But I was scared. She wrote the Cootie Catcher and she tried to hide it from me. She agreed way too easy to rip up the bad one. So, I emailed the teacher a warning. Here's my actual note:

LaNina has also gotten her act together and will be providing the class a

lovely demonstration on how to make a Cootie Catchers. I can guarantee

the sample of the Cootie Catcher I have seen is completely appropriate for

class as opposed to the first one, which included a great deal of potty humor.

(This is now torn up and in the trash.) I will check the sample again in

the morning, but I know her. She's capable of pulling a fast one.

Therefore, you may want to either check her sample OR have her not read her

sample.

I've warned her not to try anything tricky and she just smiled. I'm

worried.

Her teacher reported she had no time to read or suggest fortunes/dares as her classmates asked her too many questions during the demonstration. The teacher found the whole situation hysterically funny. In fact, I think she was hoping she went for the racy version of the Cootie Catcher. But let me just be clear, this would have never occurred to me as a child. This child is definitely her father's daughter.