Liar, liar, pants on fire
It is a fact of life that adults lie. Sometimes lies that have impact but most of the time it is just little things like status or salary. As adults engaged in a conversation we are usually aware of these little stretches in what people say and accommodate for it, finding the reality someone in the middle.
Kids on the other hand, have not learned things like social graces. They do, however, understand the desire to meet the expectations of another person, getting praise as a result. Some kids will even lie to get that praise. Not mine, of course.
When does it become socially acceptable to lie? We find other words for it as adults - exagerating or stretching the truth, little white lies or telling a half-truth to avoid hurting someone's feelings. All in all it is lying and it must confuse the heck out of a child trying to learn social structures. Poor things, they really don't stand a chance of being normal, do they?
Kids on the other hand, have not learned things like social graces. They do, however, understand the desire to meet the expectations of another person, getting praise as a result. Some kids will even lie to get that praise. Not mine, of course.
When does it become socially acceptable to lie? We find other words for it as adults - exagerating or stretching the truth, little white lies or telling a half-truth to avoid hurting someone's feelings. All in all it is lying and it must confuse the heck out of a child trying to learn social structures. Poor things, they really don't stand a chance of being normal, do they?
posted by y-vonne at 4:50 AM
1 Comments:
Yeah, that is a tough one.
Like just yesterday. I was explaining how I didn't want the kids to mention to Daddy that I let them eat their lunch in the car (we were in a hurry!). Daddy is a neat freak about cars, see. When my oldest asked me if he was supposed to lie, I said "No, if he ASKS then tell you should him the truth. But if he doesn't ask, you don't need to tell him".
I realized later, how incredibly stupid it was of me to have even said anything at all. What kind of message did I send? Sheesh.
Of course, as soon as we got home, Daddy was promptly told about the eating in the car, so not to worry... my poor parenting moment didn't sink in anyway, apparently.
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