All kids lie. If you don't believe that, then you're an idiot and your head is buried so far in the sand that your brain is oxygen deprived. Hey, I'm the first to admit my girls lied when they were growing up. My son is still a work in progress but he is certainly carrying on his sisters' traditions with just as much flair.
Oh yeah, I know, your precious little darlings would never lie to you because you are raising them with an "open line of communication." Oh, and they tell you about EVERYTHING they are doing and EVERYONE they hang out with. HAHAHAHAHA.. you are so gullible. Look, the fact is that for every one thing your kids tell you that they are doing, there are ten things they're not telling you about. So why not have some fun with it. Catch'em.
My absolute favorite "gotcha" story is about our oldest. She was 13 and had been invited to spend the night with a friend. They were going to the movies to see "Meet Joe Black" which was rated PG-13. At least that was the story. So the weekend goes by without a hitch. On Tuesday, my husband is checking the pockets of my daughter's jeans when he comes across a movie ticket stub. And guess what.... it ain't for Meet Joe Black. Yup, it's for an R rated movie of which I cannot remember the name. But that's irrelevant. The rule in our house was no R-rated movies. Period.
Oh, baby, this was gonna' be fun. I was so excited, I was giddy. That night, after all of the softball practice, cheerleading practice and soccer practice, we sat down at the table to eat dinner. About half way through the meal, my husband asked my daughter how the movie was Saturday night. OK, now this girl is good....but not that good. She starts reeling off the trailer of Meet Joe Black. So I say, "Yes, we know all of that, but why did Brad Pitt's character hang around with Anthony Hopkins's character." She stuttered a bit and then my husband goes in for the kill. "Well maybe you can't answer because you didn't see Meet Joe Black..you saw (and he said the name of the R movie) instead." And he pulled out the movie ticket stub.
Ha....GOTCHA'. You could have bought her for a nickel. She was speechless for about 30 seconds. Then she put down her fork, looked at both of us and said, "I'll be in my room. Just let me know how long I'm grounded. I'd like to go ahead and get it over with."
She was grounded for a week.
AAAHHHH....Victory is sweet.
Lisa
Hehe ... I used to work with a guy who taught me how to tell when kids are lying - that's when their lips move ! Hahaha!
I have no kids, but my niece and nephews certainly seem to live by it sometimes ;-)
Posted by: Barb | June 28, 2005 at 01:39 AM
I really hate to burst your bubble but kids are people and don't do anything they weren't taught to do.
If your kids are being duplicitous, they got it from somewhere. That's just common sense.
Look. Parents of yesteryear were gods. They owned the house, mode of transportation, food, forms of entertainment, keys to the liquor/gun cabinet, and anything else a kid might have an interest in.
No meant no, plain and simple.
Now we have schools of deceit and corruption. Kids ain't learning the ABC's there, that's for damn sure.
From the time our two boys could understand the words, I told them there wasn't a way on God's green earth they could outsmart me. I had learned all I needed to know about cheating, stealing, lying, and much more in my school days and would use that knowledge against/for them.
I would clean/search there rooms, clothes, bodies, and possessions at any time day or night that I felt the need. The liquor cabinet, gun drawer, keys to the car, access to credit cards and checks would be secured in such a way as to make it clear they were tampered with. Punishment would be swift and guara-damn-teed painful.
Police state? You bet your ass!! I told them that they would be shown all the mercy I could muster... and that's the way I would show them. When they were little and could offer no material objection, life was busy but simple. And when they got older (middle school), life just got so easy, I was amazed.
Of the two boys, one lied to me on a minor issue when he was about sixteen but I didn't catch him at it... he confessed too quickly. The other was so honest I had to work with him to soften the hard edges (does this make my rear end look big... yeah, huge!)
They're grown up now and I have to say my husband and I miss them like mad. They were like great house guests that you would wish to stay forever.
Please. I am not bragging. I just feel that not telling how simple it is (not easy... at least in the beginning) is mean. I can't tell you how many gajillion times I have been asked how I got our boys to behave so well.
That's how.
Posted by: Trish Fitzpatrick | July 07, 2005 at 11:46 AM
Congratulations Trish. Unfortunately, you are wrong. I'm sure you believe that your two angels have only lied to you that "one" time. And that's great. If that's the world you want to live in, by all means, knock yourself out. But the truth of the matter is that kids do dumb things, we all did. Kids don't want to disappoint their parents and even more so, don't want to get in trouble with their parents. So in hopes to avoid these things, they will lie. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes they don't. Those are the facts,Trish, period. Ask any child psychologist, therapist, specialist. It's a natural response to a negative situation. This is not a new thing. It's been going on for centuries.
Posted by: Lisa | July 07, 2005 at 05:08 PM
Would love to hear some more "Mayhem and Motherhood" stuff from you girls. The "World News" is good but your REAL WORLD is the 24/7 kids, husbands, getting through the day!
YOU GOT THE GOODS! Tell us WHERE IT"S AT! Today I have said "Why am I not advising George Bush?" and "Why am I not advising SNL?" The little "different thing" about your Blog of world news, military stuff; is the "babes living in the real world" . (Why am I not advising this Blog?) (Because my days of "advising" is over)
Give us some of your good stuff! You got it!
Posted by: Chris Sears | July 22, 2005 at 12:38 AM
Trish if kids are people then why are you giving them random searches of there things, and all that does is tell them how to lie better or hide there things better, way to go trish, u gave your kids very good practices. Now I hate to break it to you one more time but if you caught your kids lieing only once then your not a very good parent. :)
Posted by: kyle | August 22, 2006 at 08:48 PM
my son is 12 he as just really hurt us with hes lies, he told us a boy in hes class was fighting with him and he got knocked to the floor while all hes mates joined in and kicked him in the body.the teacher has a different story he was fighting with one of hes best mates but thats all she told me i was ready to call in the police and press charges for assalt he had to go to the walk in centre to be treated, we asked him to tell us the truth before we took it any further but he said he was telling the truth so we took him to school and he told the teacher the same story so we all fell for it hook line and sinker, but for a few months he as said he can see ghosts and he is very serious about he knows things that happened like in the 1900;s that no one could no or is he just very clever i really don;t no whats going on with him,thak you
Posted by: susan skerry | November 08, 2006 at 08:06 AM