Honesty

Matt took the girls up to bed this evening and it wasn't long before I heard exclamations of "What the heck?!?" from him. The girls play upstairs quite a bit while I get stuff done downstairs and are usually pretty good about not being destructive. Today they had other plans and had ripped a book to shreds. Mac had a problem with doing this right at about 2.5 and so if I had to venture a guess, I would say that Keegan started it (semi developmental process) and Mac regressed back to her old ways when she heard that tempting sound of paper tearing! But I digress.

When Matt confronted them about it, Mac quickly exclaimed that it was me that tore the pages. Several times he asked both of them who did it and each time they replied with me. At that, I ran upstairs because if you are going to call me out on something little missies, you better be ready to do it to my face. I walked in and asked Mac who tore the book. You could see the "Oh no!" settle into her face. She started to say "Mommy", then decided to start pointing at Matt, before settling on Keegan as her new target. We told her she needed to be honest and tell us or she was going to be punished for both tearing the book and lying. She insisted that it was Keegan until punishment ensued at which point she admitted that she had torn the book too. Keegan threw Mac right back under the bus and had to be punished as well for not being honest. I then made them both apologize to Matt for being dishonest and made them tell him the truth.

I hope they learned the start of a lesson. I know fibs, lies, and stories come as part of our nature, but I hope that my kids learn to be more honest than not. As a kid I stole a .25 cent piece of candy from the store and was mortified when my mother drove me back to the store, asked to see the manager, and made me return it and apologize...there may have even been a security guard involved, I'm not quite sure. What I do know is that I never stole again and I sure thought twice before being deceptive or dishonest again (not to say it never happened...it just made an impression). You better believe I will institute the same policy with our kids and make them fess up. I will support them the whole way, but they got to come clean.

As if I would tear a book anyways...nice try Mac but you aren't as slick as you think.