Jan
13Truth vs. Lies
Tagged Under : lies, parenting, truth
I find my son to be a straight shooter. If I bust him doing something he doesn’t try to lie about it. He fesses up. I try to reiterate how fibbing is wrong, blah, blah, blah. Today he lied. It was right in front of me no less.
We went to McDonald’s for a quick dinner. He ate a burger and when he was done he asked for another. My husband asked him if he was sure that he wanted another one several times and Jordyn said yes each time. So, he bought him another burger. While he was eating the burger we all decided we wanted dessert so my husband left again to order it. I heard Jordyn say he was done with his burger and when I looked it was half gone. Before I could say anything he quickly ran to the garbage can and threw it out. When he came back to the table he said, “Don’t tell Dad because then I’ll get in trouble and won’t be able to eat dessert.” Again, before I could say anything my husband comes back to the table and says, “Here’s your dessert. Wow! You finished your burger?” Without hesitation he says, “Yep!” and then takes his milk shake happily.
I just sat there looking at him thinking, okaaaaaay, are you going to feel guilty and fess up now. I kept looking. And looking. And watching. I quietly ate my apple pie and just kept waiting for the moment of truth to come out so I could gleam about how my son is a truth sayer.
That moment never came.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to embarrass him and I also didn’t want him to lose his milk shake. I mean really, he did eat a double burger and half of another in addition to the fries. It was just the principal of the matter. Thing is I can’t sit here and say I never lied to anyone. I have lied if there was something I knew I was going to catch some flack for but didn’t want to hear it. Sure. I worked around it somehow.
I can’t quite put my finger on it. It was just weird and slightly disappointing. Thing is, I wasn’t disappointed in him. I was disappointed in myself. I felt like that decision he made was a reflection of my own parenting. Having said that, I am hyper aware that he spends 7 hours a day with other children. We all face those moments where we have to make a choice between truth and lies. I would have lied too to get the milk shake!

