Little White Lies Told to Little People

Yesterday's post, Confessions of a Candyland Cheater, has already gotten several comments on http://www.blogher.com/ where I also post my blogs. This got me thinking about all the other lies I have told to the little people in my life.

Way back when I was first pregnant with Thing 1, I remember being all idealistic about the whole lying thing. I seriously considered whether I would be an accomplice in the big lies: Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc. But like every other parent, I fell in line, not wanting to be accused of denying my kid(s) a proper American upbringing.

When Thing 1, at only 2 1/2 years old, was onto the fact that "Santa" looked a great deal like Uncle Skip, I didn't outright lie, but I didn't clear up the confusion. Instead, I took out other pictures and drawings of Santa Clauses and tried to point out that they all bore an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Skip.

When Thing 1 and Thing 2 asked to stop at MacDonald's one night while we were out. I didn't feel like climbing back on my soap box and lecturing them yet again about the unhealthy food sold there. So instead, I declared that the MacDonald's was closed. To which Thing 1 countered, "Then why are all the lights on and some people in there?" Without hesitation I replied "That is just the cleaning crew honey, they come in when the store closes, and of course, they need the lights on to see what they are doing."

Even with the tooth fairy, I found myself telling little white lies upon little white lies, mostly due to my own or my husband's or both, parental disorganization. Not only did I go along with the rouse of the tooth fairy, but when my daughter didn't find a coin under her pillow (back in our UK days) I would go in her room, coin in hand and sureptitiously drop it on the floor next to the bed as I made a big show of looking under the pillows. I would then step away from the bed, let my eyes fall to the floor and "spot" the coin. I announced excitedly, "there it is, the tooth fairy didn't forget you, it must have fallen out of the bed when you got up to look for it under your pillows!"

Of course, now that they are ten and twelve, they have found out that there is no tooth fairy, no Santa (but there still is an Uncle Skip!) and no Easter Bunny. Though I fretted about lying to my children in the first place back when this whole parenting thing began, their response when they found out the truth, was distinctly underwhelming. There was no accusatory tribunal of "How could you have lied to us?" Instead, they just wanted to know if they would still get the same amount of presents at Christmas time.