“How was school?” Requisite daily mommy question.

“Good.” The answer which never really does. It’s at this point I notice his left eye is reddish. His previous experiences with bullying leads to parental paranoia.

” Your eye looks red. What happened?”

“I rubbed it.”

“Is that all?”

“Yep.”

“You know you can tell me if anyone tries to hurt you…”

He thinks about it for a second. “Well we were playing a game today where we threw rocks at each other. I got hit by two in the ribs.” Wth? After much questioning – boys take a long time to answer what you really want to know – I figure out this game is pretty much like Dodge Ball except with rocks.

“Did anyone get hurt?”

“Yes, [insert boy's name here] did.”

“How?”

“He was hit by a rock.” ::silly::