Sick...Or Not Sick

I received the call today from the secretary at Molly's school notifying me that she was in the office due to illness. I had only left her in perfect health thirty minutes before. The secretary informed me that Molly thought she was going to throw up but she didn't have a fever. So, I grabbed the baby and off we went. I found Molly in the office looking a little nervous but not too ill. Immediately I wondered if something else was going on.

So, I gathered the girl up and home we went. My first clue that something was amiss was when I told her she needed to lay down as soon as we got home and she wanted to know "why?" I explained that when you stay home from school because you are sick you must spend all day laying down so you can recover quickly. She asked if maybe she could just play a little if she was feeling better and I knew something was definitely up.

I spent all day asking if she was OK or if maybe something else happened that made her want to come home from school and she kept assuring me that she just felt like she was going to throw up. After six hours of lying down and asking when she could get up and play, she finally admitted that maybe she wasn't sick after all. Apparently, she just wanted to come home because she missed me. How do you punish a five year old for such an admission? It is nearly impossible. All I could do was explain the importance of school and secretly hope she isn't manipulating me just yet.