Honesty is very important in my life. I’ve been told that I hold honesty to a higher standard because of my sign (I’m a virgo) but I don’t really believe in that type of stuff even though some things do align with my life. I think its because when I was younger, I found out that something very important to a person’s life was a lie and that I kind of had to start a relationship over and build a new one. I found out that the person I thought was my father, wasn’t my father at all. I’m not saying that my mom lied to me, I’m saying that I felt that my life up to that point had felt like a lie; that the life I had didn’t feel the same once I found out.
I think that shaped me a little bit. Turned me into someone who hated lying with a vengence. It started to turn me off to people as soon as I realized that they were lying. I’m too nice to actually call someone out on it. I hate to cause a scene, but I tend to pull myself back from a relationship once I realize that lying is involved. It pays to be honest. Some people don’t realize that. You can’t build a relationship on lies.
We try to teach are children about lying and what concequences it could have. My 6 year old is getting to the point where he thinks little white lies are ok. I, however, can’t stand it. I don’t want him thinking that lying is the norm because no one should being making it the norm.
What do you do to help your children realize the importance of being honest?
We talk about how it’s not nice to lie. There was a Yo Gabba Gabba episode about lying so my daughter started picking up on that message. It’s one of those things that we know is bad but is tough to explain…for me anyway.
This is a good question that I think about daily because our four year old is at the point where he’s calling us on everything….so if we “joke around” or “kid” then he says “you’re lying, Mommy.” Ugh. Well, he is right, so we’re trying hard to never tell any lies, even if they’re small and it’s “just a joke.” We’re definitely in the minority about pretend holiday characters, too, but we don’t do any of them because I don’t like the feeling of lying to our kids, even if it is just for fun. It’s a good debate for sure!