My Feet Hurt, Too

I have a crier. Well, I have two criers, but one is not nearly as bad as the other, who cries every day, multiple times.

She cries if she gets a wrong answer.
She cries if she is even a little bit confused.
She doesn't raise her hand and ask for help -- she cries.
She cries if I don't pick her for something.
She cries if she doens't like the lunch choices.

But most annoying, she won't stop once she starts, she won't do it quietly, and she lies about why she is crying (after I waste five precious minutes calmly trying to coax a reason for the tears out of her sobbing, scrunched up little face.)

I don't like humoring criers.

The only legitamate reason I can see for a child to cry is when they are hurt.

So my crier has figured this out, and now whenever she is crying, she tells me that her feet are cramping. It has nothing to do with not getting to write on the board -- her feet are cramping! No, it's not because she doesn't understand the math problem and won't even try it -- her feet are cramping.

Maybe her feet are cramping.

I doubt it.

I called home today and talked to her grandmother about the cramping feet, and her grandmother promised to take her to the doctor. It's an expensive way to weed out a lie, though.

Maybe it is psychosomatic (?) and her feet hurt when she's not using her brain enough.