On April Fool’s Day my six year old daughter walked into the room while I was attempting to catch up to date on Battlestar Galactica Season 3. She was wearing a princess costume with a belt around her waist and a styrofoam sword sheathed under it.

Cute. But she’s crying. Tears running down quietly. “Dad. Dad,” she cried. “Nobody’s falling for my April Fool’s jokes.”

My five year old sensing she’s being told on comes darting in. She’s wearing her ballerina outfit with my Saint Joe’s baseball cap. I’m not really sure what was going on there but she explains herself. “Dad. They’re just not good jokes.”

Seeing me unconvinced my five year old explains further, “Dad. She keeps saying ‘look there’s a giant spider behind you’ and ‘the roof is falling down.’

She then tells me that to make a good April Fool’s joke you have to say something that actually happens to make the person believe it. “When you try to fool someone you have to say something like there’s a bug in your hair.”

My five year old worries me greatly.