Friday, April 20, 2007

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses?

Let's say that you have a friend.
This friend has a child that has to go to another parent's house occasionally. While at this house the child is treated abysmally by their step-parent.
Your friend is trying to come up with some type of excuse to prevent their child from having to go over there for the weekend.
What excuses could you come up with?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. The child is sick and is contagious (which might work if the other parent has kids who could catch it).

2. A relative on your side of the family has died, and you need to take him to the funeral.

3. The child's friend has asked him to spend the weekend, and the child is really excited about it.

4. The child's church group is having a weekend camp/retreat, and the child wants to go.

5. Your friend could just be straightforward and say that the child doesn't want to come over because of the way he's treated by the step-parent (of course, that might not work, based on if the biological parent cares about that)

6. Your friend could say that she (assuming it's a she) has a close friend up North that's going overseas on vacation, and wants to see the friend and her child before she goes.

7. Your friend could say that she wants to get the child in therapy, and this weekend is the only time to meet with some of the potential therapists.

8. If your friend's child is involved in any sports, she could say that she forgot about the tournament downstate and needs to take the child there.

9. Your friend could say that the child is projectile vomiting.

10. Your friend (again, assuming she's a she) could write a little note and stick it under the door of the parent and step-parent:

Roses are red
But we've got a glitch,
Our kid is not here
'Cause your mate is a bitch.

dmarks said...

Or

"Roses are red
And bought at the store
Our kid is not here
'Cause your girlfriend's a ....."


---

I think Playtah's got it covered. You just have to use them carefully. If the kid has to go to stepdude's house 52 times a year, you can't use #2 that much and kill off 52 aunts and uncles in one year.

"Car broke down" and related excuses might be considered.

mielikki said...

My vote is for Pink Eye. Its contageous, gross to look at , and most people don't want to get it

Roses are red, violets are blue, my child has pink eye
his lid's stuck like glue!

Moonbeam said...

I think Playtah has it more than covered but here are my contributions:

The child has been invited to a Birthday Party.

How bout, way too much homework, must stay home to do research.

School related field trip this weekend.

Or....

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
My kid hates being with you

Or....

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Sonny cant find
his left shoe
so he wont be coming
to visit you

Churlita said...

I think you...uh, I mean, your friend, needs to be honest with the ex about their spouse's behavior. I know you said you talked to him before, but maybe if you say it again and tell him, how traumatizing it is for him, he'll hear you this time.

I use the "sick kid" a lot with my ex, because he doesn't want to deal with them when they don't feel well. Maybe the step, won't want to be bothered with a sick kid either.

Skyzi said...

I need more background, how old is this child. If the kid is old enough to rat you out a lot of these don't work.....but they are brilliant!

Anonymous said...

My favorite excuse is diarrhea. The "Big D" always is always a deal breaker. And it's a one-word excuse, because additional information is usually unwanted.

Good Luck!

Unknown said...

Food poisoning...definately. There's no way they can proove he doesn't have it! Otherwise Playtah had some good ones...

egan said...

I would say,

"Look, the kid has a blog and will spend most of the weekend updating dead links and adding photos to the blog. Can't you cut the kid some slack?"

Actually, I'd just be honest about since tiptoeing around it won't resolve the issue.

laughing said...

Does a judge make the kid visit the other parent if he doesn't want to?

Does he just want this particular weekend off, or does he want to stop the weekend visits?

I mean, you can't just have kids getting out of things they're supposed to do just because they don't want to do them. But you'd think that it would be someone's job to say that the kid's well being is more important that the other parent's visitation rights. You'd think that there would be a reasonable way to get out of this if it is not good for the kid.

Or maybe I just watch Judging Amy too much.

Erica said...

Well, I think one should go with this:
'I am sorry but my child has developed a fear of sleeping when I am not there or nearby, he just cannot be away from me a whole night'
My friend's daughter is 12 and she cannot stand sleeping in a different house/place as her mother and she would always refuse a sleep in at a friend's house, no matter what. So you could blame it on the child, which could be unfair, but given the circumstances, the best way to go to avoid any awkwardeness.

M said...

Maybe your friend needs to have a lone lunch with her ex where she tells the ex that his current wife is hurting HIS child and if he cares at all about his child at all things need to change.

Mr. Fixit said...

Best to have real events for the child to attend, rather than makeing excuses. Enroll the child in sports that play on weekends. Better yet, coach sports teams for the child, then you determine when practice is, and possibly games.

Not that that's what I did, just saying.

Nice blog by the way.

Mr Fixit