The Mind of a Teenager

I was driving to do some errands and my 13 year old nephew was in the car. He had just returned from a trip to the beach, so in an effort to multi-task (get some errands done and spend time with him), I dragged him along. Plus who else could I boss around to help me out.

Apparently, one of his aunts bought him one of those farting machine things and he started playing with it in the car. He would giggle and say things like "Oops, excuse me". He would then politely offer to roll down the window. This went on for awhile and then he finally said something like, "My stomach really hurts". I was thinking oh brother...and he kept making the little machine "fart".

I was amused that he thought he was fooling me. He even pretended to double over with discomfort. After awhile it got annoying, but I kept playing along. He asked me if I knew anyone who had gas as bad. I told him that some patients I saw during my clinical rotations did. He asked me what happened to them and I said that in order to assess the real problem, some of the consultants did full examinations on them,they had lots of tests done and that they're families had brought them to the emergency room.

He got quiet and asked if it would be my father or one of our other relatives who would do the physical exam,without having to go to the E.R. I told him that relatives, especially grandfathers, weren't allowed to treat relatives and it would have to be a doctor the emergency room chose for him. When we got out of the car, he said "Um Uncle this is what my aunt got me for my birthday..." and showed me the farting toy.

So first I was amused, then annoyed, then I felt bad that I scared my 13 year-old nephew. And he just became a teenager about a week ago--we've got a few more years of shenanigans coming.