What would you most likely do in this situation?

I had our teenage paper boy come to my door with a skinned knee. He lived two houses down from us. Because his mother was bedridden with cancer, he didn't want to worry her.
Gee----I have to know. How's the mother doing?
 
Gee----I have to know. How's the mother doing?
This was years ago. Unfortunately, his father passed away first - then, his mother. I felt so badly that I missed visiting his father in hospital .. he had sent his son to ask me to visit him, but I wasn't home. He was a lovely neighbour. They were from Tanzania.
 
It's like the old question about when to call your mother at work. The child is supposed to ask himself the following questions before calling Mom and make an intelligent decision whether or not to call:

1. Is something on fire? How big is the fire? Can the scorch marks be hidden?

2. Is there blood? How much? Whose blood is it? Is it on the new couch?

3. How long has my brother been missing? Will Mom notice he's not at the dinner table tonight?

4. Who can I blame this on?

5. Is it worth getting grounded for a month or should I just start packing my bag right now?

We used to call my mother at work at least ten times a day with such urgent problems as "I want to wear my red shirt and she wants to wear HER red shirt, so tell her she can't wear her red shirt because I said I was going to wear mine FIRST!" and "Is ________supposed to be eating a candy bar because she ate a candy bar and I know she's not supposed to eat it!" and "______ says it isn't her turn to wash the dishes and IT IS SOOOOO her turn to wash the dishes and she says I have to!" and "I can't find my blue tennis shoes!"

Eventually my mother would yell, "ONE MORE CALL and I'm going to come home and massacre the lot of you and nobody will find me guilty in a court of law! I work for a lawyer......he'll defend me for free!"
 
2 or 3, depending on the age - but my first move is to get out the peroxide! In my experience, if you give young children access to bandages, they will use them all, whether over an injury or not!
 


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