Superstitious Wishes

So this morning, my six-year-old daughter asked me about speed limits. We were driving through a 40MPH zone and she asked me, "What would happen if you go faster than 40?"

"Hmm, well I might get a ticket, honey."

"So you can only go slower. Like... 35... or 20... or 5..."

"Well, if I go 5MPH, I'll probably get a ticket, too."

"But you can't go faster? Like 100... or 257 miles per hour?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that would be frowned upon so close to a school zone."

There was a brief pause. Then, "I wish you would get a ticket, daddy."

That threw me for a loop. "What? Wait, why would you wish that?!"

"I thought about it for a second in my head that what if you did get a ticket and then I thought that would be bad so I didn't want you to get a ticket actually so then I said it out loud because you told me before that wishes don't come true if you say them out loud but only in your head so I decided that if I say it out loud then it won't ever come true and that's a good thing because I don't want you to get pulled over daddy."

...

"Oh."