A few weeks ago, shortly before the new school year began, my wife had a conversation — let's say a "challenging" conversation — with our youngest daughter.
Our 11-year-old girl was whining about all of the things we expected her to do each day — practicing piano, completing chores and working on some summer homework books — before she was allowed to do "fun" stuff, like playing on the computer or riding her bike.
Our daughter had fallen behind on some of her required tasks due to a lack of diligence, so my wife had decided it was time to lay down the law. But no matter what my wife said, our daughter didn't seem to get it.
So, as parents often do, my wife tried to teach a larger lesson. She told our daughter that it's very important as she gets older to learn that sometimes we have to do or go through things we don't enjoy, and that she might as well start developing that skill now. She completed her speech with, "That's life."
To which our daughter promptly replied, "Life is too LIFEY!"