I Won't Get Fooled Again!

I grew up with a mom who was really creative.  She would always manage to get me on April Fool's Day.  She never did anything mean.  Usually she would tell me something that I would fall for and let me go all day until I figured out that whatever it was wasn't true.  I can still see her smile when I would figure it out.

Fast forward many, many years.  My mother is older now and it's hard for her to talk on the phone.  Yet her power is still felt.  I knew all day I wasn't going to call her.  There was no way I was going to let her get me again.  In all likelihood, it wouldn't have happened.  Either she would have forgotten or she couldn't come up with a suitable plan. But it doesn't matter. I was still afraid to call her.  She won. She scared me by doing nothing.  Nothing!  Her legacy lives on.

My girls were on guard all day.  The truth is, I'm not as good at this as my mom was.  I'm not so creative.  The only thing I could do was pretend to find a cricket, which freaked out M.  I didn't want to be mean.  I wanted to be sneaky.  I laid down the ground rules:  no saran wrap on the toilet; don't do anything that requires someone to ingest something gross; don't touch the toothpaste/brushes.

They reminded me of past AFDs. One year I put plastic rats in their beds.  That was fun.  It was more fun for them later when they put them in my bed.  And it was more fun for my boyfriend who, many years later (just a few months ago), stood by while I screamed when I found one under my bed.

A few years ago, I enlisted the help of a friend of theirs and removed all the clothes from their bedroom.  We had fun listening to them try to figure out where all their clothes went.

The girls are in bed and I lived without anything bad happening.  I'll call my mom when it's safe again - on April 2.

Another April Fool's Day survived.  Whew.