Tall Tales

Earlier this week, Drew reached a new milestone of childhood.

It's not, however, one of those milestones that we, as his parents, were looking forward to.

It's a coming-of-age skill, really, that, to be quite honest, kinda boggles my mind.

It's not taught; it just kind of happens. 

And it has happened to Drew.

Drew is now old enough to lie.

Yipes.

Now, this week wasn't the first incident.  He has lied before.  Small fibs, white lies, minor untruths, if you will - usually for something minor and usually involving his brother.  But this time - he's reached a whole new level.

He not only lied, but he had a whole story to go along with it.

Wednesday afternoon my mom and I were out running errands and Brad was home with the boys.  Reed was napping and Brad was on the treadmill.  It was our designated quiet time for the boys, and because Drew doesn't nap anymore, he is asked to find something quiet to do by himself during that time.  According to Brad, he was having a difficult time doing that.  At some point, while Brad was still running, Drew made his way upstairs into the dining room, where he found the container of donuts from our North Pole Breakfast earlier this week.  He proceeded to eat some, and then yelled down to Brad, "I need a drink!"  When Brad came up, he noticed the crumbs on the table and the ring of powder around Drew's mouth.  He didn't say anything to Drew about it then, but when Brad ran up to take a quick shower, Drew got into the donuts again.  Brad noticed, and did ask him about it, and Drew claimed that Luci ate them....and then went into a long spiel about exactly how Luci ate them.

Shortly after, Mom and I returned home, and Brad filled me in.  We then sat down with Drew to talk about the Great Donut Caper.

His story went a little like this...

"Luci got up on the table and opened the lid the grown-up way (meaning pulling the tab on the lid with her paw???), and knocked out some donuts.  Then she ate 'em."

{I then told Drew that I didn't think that was true.  I said that if Luci had gotten into the donuts, she would have eaten all of them.  And Luci doesn't eat at the table so how did all the crumbs get there?  And what about the powder on your lips?  How did that get there?}

With gestures: "Luci flipped a donut into the air and it hit me on the lip."


{Not.Even.Kidding.You.  And I won't lie.  I totally laughed.  Out loud.}

{We proceeded to tell Drew that we didn't believe he was being honest.  We also told him that it's more important to us that he tell us the truth than whatever naughty thing he had done.  I told him I had one question for him, and he only had to answer with a yes or a no.  "Did you eat the donuts?"}

"No."

{"Okay, let's try again.  Drew, did you eat the donuts?"}

"Okay, I didn't tell Daddy the right thing."  {Translation: he didn't tell Daddy the truth the first time he had asked.}

We proceeded to get way too wordy with our four-year-old about why it's important to tell the truth, along with the general house rules of asking before you have a snack.

If anyone has any tips on how to deal with lying, I'm all ears!  It's a tough one for me, especially since I've just introduced an Elf that isn't real, who mysteriously moves about the house after he's made his nightly trip to visit Santa, who, by the way, also isn't real.  H.y.p.o.c.r.i.t.e.  Hello.


What's a mom to do?

And by the way, he ate at least six of those powdered donuts.  At least.