One year my dad was super excited about a gift he was getting my mom for her birthday. It was a new camera. Mom loves taking pictures and she was due for a new one. This was pre-digital cameras, so it still had canister film and everything.

Dad decided to let my younger brother, Scott, and I in on the awesome surprise. I think we were about 8 and 6 at the time. Old enough to be trusted with the secret! He made us promise not to tell mom. He showed us the camera and even took a picture with it. "But remember, don't tell mom," he said. "It's a surprise."

I definitely wanted to be trusted, so I wasn't going to tell mom anything. About a week later we were just days from mom's birthday. Dad called me into the room with mom and said, "Danielle, I told you not to tell mom about her present."

"I didn't!" I exclaimed. 

"Who did?" he asked. Then it hit him, Scott must have told.

Mom was laughing. So I chimed in, "Yeah, well dad even took a picture with it!"

Mom howled and dad grabbed his face and shook his head. 

It was bad enough that she had gotten Scott to tell her about her present early, but then I added fuel to the fire. 

We were not trusted with secret birthday gifts for a few years after that one.