Nurse Ratched

A first grade girl claiming to be sick came into my office, and with the flu going around, I've temporarily quit my efforts to stop anyone from trying to go home. I dialed the number and let her talk to the mom, and after she hung up I asked what her mom had said. 

Girl: "My mom said she'll call back."

Me: "Okay...Is she going to come get you?"

Girl: "I don't know. She was on her lunch break and she doesn't like to be interrupted. She'll call back when her break is over." 

Awesome. I was stuck with the girl while we waited for her mom to call back, a girl with a scratchy, grating, and LOUD voice, that never stopped talking:

Girl: "Sometimes my dad plays funny games except they're not really funny to my mom."

Me: "What kind?"

Girl: "He says i'm going to call you tonight and then he doesn't. He lies! My mom doesn't like it."

At one point, when I'd had enough of her motor mouth, I told her she asks a lot of questions. Her response, without missing a beat: "That's what my mom says, she says I ask too many questions and talk too much." 

By this point, the cute-ness bonus factor that all kids get when they walk in my office was waning. As the lunchtime rush began to come in and she continued talking and asking questions with hardly a pause for breath, the Nurse Ratched came out in me: "Look, your throat is never going to heal if you don't stop talking and let it rest." 

She didn't make another peep the rest of her time with me, but I felt kind of bad about what I said to get some peace in my office...oops.