A Lesson in Lies

It's quite difficult to explain to a four year old exactly what "lying" means and all the different ways one can "lie." Let me tell you, I tried the other day. Chip was out of town on a golf trip, the kids and I were playing outside after church. I was getting ready to wash my car, which meant emptying the bucket of supplies onto the driveway so I could fill it with water and soap. The spray bottle of Armor All (I have no clue if that's how you spell that) was one of the supplies in the pile. I soon heard a blood curdling scream from Kendall and a quick "sooooorrry Kendall" from Coop. I asked what happened, Kendall said "Cooper sprayed me." The only thing I could see was the Armor All so I asked Cooper if he sprayed Kendall with it. He said "no" (of course). I ask Kendall to point to what he sprayed her with and she quickly runs to the black bottle in question. I ask Cooper again if he sprayed Kendall with it and he finally admitted what I suspected all along...yes, he indeed sprayed her with the Armor All.



So, we had two counts of trouble here...1) spraying his sister with anything, especially something that could be unsafe, and 2) lying about it afterwards.



Long after the Armor All was put up (I don't actually use it to begin with, so it didn't take long to put it away), we encountered "lie" number 2.



I took roughly 16 loads of useless junk and garbage out of my car and lined it up in the garage to be sorted. Cooper found a large bag of Tootsie Rolls I recently used as prizes at a fundraiser. I saw him eyeing it and he looked at me, smiled his cutest smile and said "Mommy, just keep cleaning the car and don't look over at me. Okay Mommy?" Now, contrary to what some might say, I ain't stupid. So, I said "okay" and walked to the other side of the car, out of sight. For about 4 seconds. Then I tiptoed back around the side of the car and watched him quietly sneak 2 tootsie rolls out of the bag.



Our Sunday School lesson this week was on doing the opposite of what your instinct would be or what you would normally do. So, instead of getting angry and putting him in time-out (my first instinct and what I would normally do), I used the opportunity while his mouth was full of chewy candy (so I couldn't be interrupted) to teach him a lesson about lying (again). If I had chosen to get angry, I would never have been able to speak to him in a calm voice while he was not crying about being in trouble.



Alas, that was one time. About 3 hours after said Sunday School lesson, so we'll see what happens the next time something like this happens.