Yohanism #28

I was watching the movie E.T. with Yohan last night. There was a part where the boy named Elliot was about to dissect a frog in class. Each student had a glass bottle with a frog inside. The teacher went around putting a cotton with ammonia in each bottle. The teacher instructed the students to close the lid of the bottle so that the frogs can go to sleep. The teacher was reassuring the students that the frogs won't feel a thing. That was when Yohan asked me what will happen to the frogs. I told him what dissecting a frog means. I made a huge mistake of telling him that when I was a student I experienced dissecting a frog. Yohan got terribly upset. This was the conversation that followed ...

Yohan: "Why did you hurt the frog?! It's part of mother nature! It's a living thing!"

Me: "It was part of my class. My teacher asked me to do it."

Yohan: "Is your teacher a boy or a girl?"

Me: I was puzzled but replied, "a girl."

Yohan: "Bad teacher! I will tell her to stop hurting frogs! She should not have that kind of project ever again!"

Tears began running down Yohan's cheeks. I realized he was too young to understand the concept of dissecting frogs. I tried to lie ...

Me: "I was just joking, we didn't use a real frog. Just a toy one."

Yohan didn't accept my explanation. He was sitting down on my lap facing me. He held my face with his hands and looked directly at my eyes ...

Yohan: "Tell me the truth. Did you use a real frog or a toy one? Tell me the truth."

I was in a hot seat. For the life of me, I couldn't continue the lie I started.

Me: "I'm sorry. OK, we used a real frog. Are you mad at mommy?"

Yohan: "I'm mad at your teacher! She shouldn't hurt frogs."

I did my best to fix the situation. I wanted him to stop crying. He was missing some parts of the movie already.

Me: "Don't cry anymore. You know, the frog didn't feel any pain. After that, I sewed the frog's chest and let him go free." (I lied.)

Yohan: "Really? All the frogs didn't die?"

Me: "Yes. The class freed all the frogs in the school pond."

Upon hearing that Yohan started feeling better. I will be more careful about what I tell my son next time.