Is there a gray area between a literal truth and an understandable truth to the ears of the littles? I believe so.
There's a variety of meaning when I almost daily relate to the Younger that "This is the last time I'm coming back here [for a kiss] because I have to do my work." It usually gets her to stop buggering around. Yesterday: truth. Today: tell the truth but tell it slant.
My teaching schedule fluctuates quite a bit, including the demands on my time. My afternoon "office hours" are when I almost exclusively complete my at-home work. I almost always have at least a few minutes worth of emails and such to check in on. Sometimes, I have a solid hour or two. Sometimes, I have a solid nothing to do.
But Mama's got to get her work done.
Namely, eat biscotti and save recipes. (One of my favorite cookbooks has got to be something I like to call "MS Word," which is the biggest melange of miscellany to grace any kitchen space.) And of course, I have some baseball on because multi-tasking during my office hours. But I rarely read in the afternoon because lazy during my office hours.
Diddle around on the computer = productive.
Diddle around with a book = whoa, those blog posts won't write themselves.
Imagine trying to explain all of that to the Younger: This is the last time I'm coming back here [to kiss you] because I have five minutes worth of work to do and then I'm going to diddle around for the rest of your nap time while you lament your wretched fate and flop around until there's a 2 on the left [on your clock].
She might protest to that. And then I'd have to come back and give her some more kisses. Actually, that sounds pretty great.
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