What do you call it when your daughter uses your ‘joking around’ advice and it works?
Many years ago my daughter Chez came home from high school and announced, “Teacher says I have to wear navy blue pants. These black pants are not allowed.”
We had just arrived in England. My daughter’s new school reminded me of Hogwarts, right out of Harry Potter, complete with creepy dark bricks, sharp gables, corner high rising turrets, and skyward reaching chimneys.
“Navy blue is practically black,” I stated, “Your pants could pass for navy blue.”
“Dad you’re colorblind,” Chez said. Then she ran off and came back with a pair of dark colored shorts, held them up to her pants saying, “Here, can you see it now? The shorts are navy blue, my pants are black.”
“OK,” I admitted, “But, c’mon, it’s hard to tell. Those navy blue shorts are practically black, what’s the big deal?”
“Mrs. Carmody says if I don’t have navy blue pants I can’t come to school.”
“Who’s Mrs. Carmody?” I questioned.
“She’s my homeroom teacher. Everyone makes fun of her name. They call her Mrs. CAR-BODY. It fits, she’s huge. She says I can’t come to school anymore until I have navy blue pants.”
This is where I had to put on my thinking cap because, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’
“Chez, we can’t get down to the school clothing store until Thursday,” I explained, “Can’t you just wear the black pants a couple more days until we can get you the navy blue ones?”
Chez didn’t like my proposal and expressed her concern, “What am I supposed to tell Mrs. CAR-BODY?”
And, here’s where I got myself in trouble. I jokingly told her, “When you go into school tomorrow and your teacher tries to send you home for wearing black pants, do this … “
I went into acting mode, threw my hands up in the air, contorted my face to maximum ‘surprise’ and exclaimed, “Oh my God! How did that happen? Can you believe it! It’s a miracle! When I put them on this morning, they were navy blue!“
It worked, Chez laughed.
“You’ll just have to wear your black pants for two more days until we can get to the school clothing store when it opens up again on Thursday,” I said, “Explain that to your teacher, she’ll understand.”
Chez seemed OK with the arrangement and I figured it’s not that big a deal, her teacher can’t be that unreasonable. I didn’t think about it anymore until I got home from work the next day and Chez gave me an update.
I began the conversation, “How’d you go today with your teacher, did she mention your pants?
“Oh yeah,” Chez replied, “First thing, in the crowded hallway she said, ‘I told you to wear navy blue pants! How come you’re not wearing navy blue?'”
I waited for more, nothing came, so I blurted, “What did you say?”
Chez calmly replied, “I told her what you told me to say?”
“So you told her you’d have navy blue pants by Thursday when the school clothing shop opens?”
“No, I didn’t have time to tell her that.”
“Then what did you tell her?” I pressed.
Chez went into acting mode, threw her hands up in the air, contorted her face to maximum ‘surprise’, then blurted, “Oh my God! How did that happen? Can you believe it! It’s a miracle! When I put them on this morning, they were navy blue!“
“What? No! You said that?” I stammered.
“Yeah, why not?”
“What did your teacher say?” I asked.
“She didn’t say anything at first ’cause everyone in the hallway was laughing too hard. When the noise died down she yelled, ‘You watch your manners young lady. I don’t find that funny.’ Everyone cracked up laughing again. Then she told me to report to the principal’s office.”
“What happened then?”
“Oh, it was fine,” Chez replied, “The principal was nice. I told him we’ll be going to the school clothing store on Thursday to get the navy blue pants.”
“What did he say when you told him that?”
“He said he’d chat with Mrs. CAR-BODY and it would be OK, don’t worry about it.”
I lifted my jaw up off the ground and said, “Chez, I didn’t mean for you to say that, I was joking around.”
“That’s OK Dad,” she said, “It worked. Everyone laughed and Mrs. CAR-BODY even seemed less aggro after I said it. I almost got the feeling she wanted to laugh too. Don’t worry Dad, and besides my classmates loved it, talked about it all day.”
Photo by Rhii Photography on Unsplash
