If You Give a Mom a Cookie

For all you moms out there who have read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie countless times.

If you give a mom a cookie, she'll ask you for a napkin.

When you give her a napkin, she'll want to wipe her kids' mouths.

Wiping the kids' mouth will remind her that she hasn't packed their school lunches yet. So, she'll ask you for the peanut butter.

When you give her the peanut butter, she'll remember she needs to clean that sticky stuff on the refrigerator handles. So, she'll ask you for a sponge and some kitchen cleaner.

She'll clean the refrigerator handle, and ask you to hold the door. She'll clean the shelves, the vegetable crisper and the stuff oozing out of the duck sauce jar.

The duck sauce will remind her that she forgot to make dinner reservations for Saturday night. She'll ask for the phone.

When she reaches for the phone, it'll ring. So, she'll answer it.

Someone will ask her to volunteer for the upcoming school fundraiser. She'll agree and ask you for a pen and paper. Then she'll hang up.

Hanging up will remind her she forgot to put the dry cleaning away. So she'll go upstairs.

In her room, she'll forget why she went there in the first place. So, she'll go back downstairs.

On the way downstairs, she'll find the phone message about helping with the fundraiser. She'll pick it up, and ask for the phone.

She'll call a friend, who promises to donate plates to the fundraiser. The plates will remind her she needs someone to donate napkins. She'll ask you for the napkins. And chances are, if you give her the napkins, she'll want a cookie to go with them.

Except, someone else already ate it.

Taken from 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime by Jen Singer