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Looking for alternative to "opened a can of worms" in the following sentence...

It needs to be graphical enough for a young readership to grasp, a readership that won't have heard of Pandora's box or even know what a can of worms is.

Having fixed one friend's laptop I wondered if I may have opened a can of worms and now all my friends will expect the same service.

Any suggestions?

Steve Shute
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    What particular difference do you want the alternative to convey? – KillingTime Jul 26 '23 at 13:51
  • Pandora's box implies unknown evils and miseries, it is also something my readership may not know about. I want a more graphical similie to convey a regretful but understandable annoyance. I also don't want to imply my friends are worms! – Steve Shute Jul 26 '23 at 14:16
  • "Opened a can of worms" is a metaphor, not simile, for invited trouble or dug my own grave. – Yosef Baskin Jul 26 '23 at 14:19
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    My feeling is that opening a can of worms implies doing something likely to lead to unexpected problems/complications, while your friends expecting you to help them too is an entirely predictable result. Perhaps open the floodgates? – Kate Bunting Jul 26 '23 at 14:32
  • Are you looking for another idiom or would a simple statement suffice? ... may have created a problem for myself. – TimR Jul 26 '23 at 14:35
  • A simile would be easier for a younger readership to grasp so that it doesn't distract them from what they are reading and thus maintain their flow rather than they have to stop to consider what the metaphor means or indeed what a can of worms is. – Steve Shute Jul 26 '23 at 14:37
  • Opening the floodgates implies a problematic surge rather than what is more likely to be a persistent trickle.

    An idiom is preferred to liven up the sentence compared to a simple statement.

     – Steve Shute Jul 26 '23 at 14:42
  • @SteveShute You're thinking too literally; the idiomatic meaning of "open the floodgates" is more general (either something that's more frequent or more severe). – Stuart F Jul 26 '23 at 16:18
  • How young are your readers that they can understand the rest of the concepts in your sentence but not understand "can of worms"? – nnnnnn Jul 26 '23 at 17:58
  • You’ll become the go-to guy for every tech-challenged kid on the block. – Xanne Jul 27 '23 at 01:30

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