One of my parenting hacks is “put that crab in water.” As in, when they were grumpy babies I put my kids in the bath and now as grumpy grouches on rainy weekends, I take my kids to the pool.

Last weekend I asked Poppy to go get dressed for the pool and as she walked out of her bedroom wearing last summer’s bikini, she cupped her bare stomach in her palms and sighed, “look at my belly.”

I felt every muscle in my body tense and my breath became shallow and I managed to squeak out a (fake) breezy “oh?”

“It’s full of pasta,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“It’s full of pasta!” I replied (my other parenting hack: when I don’t know what to say, I just repeat what they said to buy myself some time. I have yet to be called out on using this strategy.)

“I am going to get so strong!” And with that my six-year-old showed me (yet again) that she knows more than I do.