I had a fairly ominous quote from quote from Ms. Evelyn the other day:

Evie: “Mama I was reading a book about children’s rights…”
Sara: “Oh boy.”
Evie. “It was very interesting.”

Probably the last we’d ever hear of that, right? I mean, that’s never going to come up again.

WRONG.

So the other day we were making chocolate covered strawberries, which Evelyn was *very* excited about. However, she was also sick, sneezing and coughing all over the place.

“Sweetheart, I can’t let you make chocolate covered strawberries while you’re getting germs all over everything,” said Sara. Hoo boy, was that the wrong thing to say! Evelyn was in a fine state.

“I know about children’s rights!” she said.
“What about children’s rights?” said Sara, while we tried not to laugh. “What does ‘children’s rights’ mean?”
“It means children have a right to do what they want!” said Evelyn. “And I’ve been learning about slavery…”

I may have snorted out loud at that point, thinking she was going to equate “not being allowed to make chocolate covered strawberries” to “slavery”, but she pulled up at the last minute.

“…and if people could get rid a thing like slavery, which is a really big thing, then I should be allowed to do strawberries, which is a little thing!”

In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with her that not being allowed to dip strawberries is relatively minor compared to slavery, although I’m not sure I buy the argument that children should be allowed to do “anything that’s not as bad as slavery”.

Unfortunately, though, this airtight argument did not help her case and we ultimately denied her request, no doubt violating her “children’s rights” in the process. I really need to get a copy of this book now, to find out what other atrocities I’ve committed. One time we made her try a bite of her supper before getting up from the table.

Look for me on trial in The Hague.