They say: "Mom, can we go outside to play?"

I hear: "Mom, we're going to come in and out 17 times over the next 2 hours. Sometimes we will close the door behind us, and sometimes we won't. We will make sure to let in about 87 flies and let out all the cool air. We will see the neighbors outside and come in to bug you about going to their house. We will fight and come in to have you play referee. When we choose to close the door behind us, we will do so with a slam, so don't plan on putting the baby down for a nap. We will be demanding drinks and ice pops several times, and we will leave the trash and/or cups in the grass for you to clean up later. We will dig in the dirt. We will make mud pies and later track them through the carpet. This is not one of my kids; just one of their favorite things to do.

We will take lots of small and large toys outside. If we choose to bring any of out toys back inside, we will throw them onto the floor beside the back door rather than putting them where they belong. We will decide we are bored and come back inside smelling like dirty, wet dogs. We will fight over the bathroom, even though we have two of them, because neither of us will have exercised enough sense to have used it on one of our 17 trips inside while we were playing outside."

Sound about right?