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How to fake a fever to get out of school

How to fake a fever to get out of school

My 14-year-old daughter is quite ingenious. She actually researched how to fake a fever this week and tried to trick me into letting her skip school. Thankfully, I knew what to look for. Have your kids ever done this? Here’s how they might try to fake a fever.

Heat their forehead

Most parents will touch a child’s forehead to see if it’s hot. Pressing a hot water bottle or laptop onto their forehead or pressing their head into a pillow and breathing heavily makes the forehead warm to the touch and might fool parents into thinking the child is actually sick.

Act sick

Sneezing, coughing and lethargy give the illusion of illness and accompany a good fever faking prank.

Heat the thermometer

To make the thermometer temperature rise a few degrees, kids can hold it tightly in their hand or under their armpit. They can also run it under hot water or drink hot water and then put it in their mouth. If they overdo it, though, the temperature will be unusually high and the gig is up.

Our kids will try lots of tricks to get out of school. I don’t like that my daughter lied to me, but I’m glad I spotted her suspicious activities. I also used the opportunity to discuss why she wanted to skip school. It turns out she hadn’t studied for a test and didn’t want to fail.