Lying

Well...as you can tell by the subject of this post, this is not a happy one. However, because I am saving these posts for Lily as her "scrapbook", I wanted to include a story of our ride home from school last Friday.

To give you a little background....at Preschool, Lily's teacher will allow the "good kids" to go to the Snack Shack a few times a week. They don't go every day and the days are picked at random. Smart idea on the teacher's part. So here's the story:

Lily: "Mom, three of us....me, "Abby", and "Jack" did not get to go to Snack Shack today. We were being good, but we didn't get to go and the other kids did."

Mom: "Why didn't you get to go?"

Lily: "I don't know. We were being good, we just didn't get to."

(subject was dropped for a bit)

Mom: "So Lily, why didn't "Abby" get to go to Snack Shack?"

Lily: "Because she had to go to timeout."

Mom: "Why didn't "Jack" get to go to Snack Shack?"

Lily: "Because he didn't have any money." (Didn't have a clue about this one...but I went with it)

Mom: "So Lily, why didn't you get to go to Snack Shack?"

Lily: "Because I didn't have any money."

Mom: "Lily, Dad gave Ms. Ann money this week. If I were to ask Ms. Ann on Monday why you didn't get to go to Snack Shack, what would she tell me?"

Lily: (head bowed and almost at a whisper) "I wasn't listening"

A conversation then ensued about what telling the truth means vs. lying. This was a serious discussion...since not only did she lie to me once, but TWICE! Oh, and we also discussed why she was not being a good listener.

Our rule in the house is that if Lily gets a timeout at school or we hear from Ms. Ann that she was not a good listener, she gets her "babies" taken away for the night. HUGE DEAL! This has happened a few times to where Lily now understands her consequence.

Mom: "Lily, what do you think your consequence should be for not being a good listener at school?"

Lily: "Mommy, do I not get to play with my babies tonight?"

Mom: "Do you think you should be able to play with your babies?"

Lily: "No." (silent cheer on Mommy's part....our form of discipline is working!!)

I then proceeded to tell her that since her friends were coming over, I would let her play with her babies, but that I hoped she had learned her lesson.

Never did I think I would be dealing with lying and manipulation at 3-years-old! Whoever said 3-year-olds "don't understand" at this age is sorely mistaken.
Justin and I have to be on our toes with this one!