Scene: Playground, summer, a couple hours before sunset.

Son: “Mom, climb up here and slide with me.”

Me: “No, I’ll watch you slide.”

Son: “Noooo, climb up here, I want to slide together.”

Me: “No, I’m too big [fib, hoping he’ll just accept it]. I’ll just watch.”

Son: “You used to slide with me.”

Me: “When you were little. Now you’re big and you don’t need me to slide.”

Son: “Did you slide when you were 32?”

Me: “Probably.”

Son: …

Son: “Has your tush gotten wider?”

***

Later, inside the house, Mom returns into the kitchen to find son staring at the computer monitor.

Son, grinning the grin of the one who knows he won: “That’s what we said.”