I Didn't Do It!

It happens.

Over time, we all learn to overuse and abuse this infamously short sentence that flows so effortlessly from our mouths when we are required to give specific answers to uncomfortable questions. I might ask my children,

"Who forgot to flush this thing in the toilet?" or "Who plugged up the toilet?" or even "Who wiped poo on the side of the toilet?"

And I'll always get, "I didn't do it" four times in a row.

Well, I found myself in the hot seat this morning as the girls made their way into the kitchen and realized that their biology experiment was swimming upside down and Mom was frantically rushing to clean the tank as soon as she saw this little fella floating on his back.

"Did we forget to feed him, MOM?"
"Weren't you suppose to change the tank two days ago?"
"MOTHER, did you kill him?"

"No, no...of course not. I didn't do that! He probably has a defective gill or something. Maybe his lungs are deformed (and he can't suck up any fresh air above the cesspool he's been swimming in).

Or maybe the others made him their next target for sibling cannibalism."

Now I know where they get it from.