To survive in this family you gotta be tough

I cheated at a game of Operation against my niece. In a few moments her father would be here with the police to take her away from my sister and spark a long custody battle. It’s the family curse. Our Dad didn’t raise us. His Dad didn’t raise him. Grandpa’s mom ran off and started a new family when he was a kid. Maybe it’s a pattern of poverty, or maybe there is something in the genes that follows the generations.

Nevertheless, I decided no mercy.  I used plastic tweezers. She didn’t understand that the metal on her’s complete the circuit and cause the poor guy to buzz when you accidentally touch the sides. I took a portion of her in-game earnings for malpractice insurance and raised the rates every time she buzzed the patient. I also taught her that sometimes the patient is too far gone, and that the most humane thing to do is pull out the battery. I know that these are dark lessons for a kid, but the sooner she learns that the world isn’t all butterflies and charlie horses the better off she’ll be.