The Bare Truth

Some time back my mother was trying to distract my son from doing something naughty by telling him “Come and play here, McQueen is asking where is Nadir?” to which he promptly replied, “McQueen is a toy, he can’t talk!”

Has my 4 yr old already become wise to our tricks? Will we have to speak the bare truth with him from now on? How on earth will we manage?

It’s so convenient telling him “Finish your food or your stomach will make noises”. Should I instead burden him with the truth and tell him that wasting food is a sin and everywhere in the world there are children who don’t have anything to eat. Will that be more effective or will he just not understand? What about when I tell him “Don’t say bad words, your tongue will become black”? Can’t I explain to him that calling someone an idiot is hurtful and how would he feel if someone reciprocated that.

We make up things all the time to tell our kids. The tooth fairy, Santa Claus, trains and cars that talk. What is it all about? We create a fairy-tale world for our kids to protect them from the harsh realities of life. Are we really preparing them for the real world this way?

Children are inherently truthful and as they grow older they learn to twist the truth. What kind of example do we set for them as adults? We often don’t tell them the truth when they ask us something because we feel they are not ready for the truth.

“Mommy where do babies come from?”

“Umm.. the angels bring them to us.”

“But you said babies are in their mommies tummies.”

“Yes I did…”

“So do the angels put them there?”

“You could say that…”

“So my real daddy is an angel??? What do angels look like and where can I find them?”

Daily Prompt: Truth or Dare