Lately Nate has been claiming to have similar symptoms to whoever happens to be feeling sick.

Lately Nate has been claiming to have similar symptoms to whoever happens to be feeling sick. I'm pretty sure he's making it up, but I don't really know for sure. Anyways, I thought I could address the issue in a non-accusatory fashion by telling him the morality tale of the boy who cried wolf.

"There once was a boy out in the fields, and he cried 'Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!' and everyone came running, but there was no wolf, and the boy just laughed, and said, 'Ha, ha! I tricked you!"

Nate is laughing and really enjoying this story, so I repeat the first part a couple of times for effect and then I get to the part where there really is a wolf, "...and nobody came, because they thought he was just tricking them again, and the wolf ate the boy up."

Nate is thrilled, he asks to hear the story again. So I indulge him. He's obviously really digging this story. I'm having a proud parenting moment. This is awesome. Finally I get tired of repeating the story.

"Nate, that's enough. I'm tired of telling the story."

"Dad, I think I see police car lights outside." 

I got to look.

Nate laughing, "Ha, ha, I tricked you!"

"No, Nate, that's not the point of the story. The point is that it's not good to trick people, because then they won't listen to you when you need them to."

Nate, genuinely disappointed, "Oh."