This Mummy told a Lie! Do you lie to your kids?

This Mummy told a lie! Do you lie to your kids?

I told a lie to Mr 6 yesterday, it just came out on the spur of the moment, he was crying I do not like Mr 6 crying because he is a happy little soul, he is kind, funny and just adorable, yes I’m biased he is my son I’m entitled to be  I’m his mum. So here is my once upon a time story of Mummy’s lie.

Once upon a time a Mr 6 was sitting in the garden, chatting away to his mum. When a little grasshopper landed on his head. Mr 6 took this as a very significant sign. A sign that this grasshopper wanted to be his pet. “Mummy can I keep him as a pet?”. Mummy thought for a few seconds and decided that “Yes, you can keep him but may be just for the day, so that the grasshopper can go back to his family at the end of the day”. Mr 6 was over the moon and even did the happy happy joy joy dance.

Mr 6 asked what felt like a never ending tirade of questions about grasshopers, “Where do they like? What do they eat? What do they drink, How big do they grow? Why are they green?” So we got online together and read about them and found answers to all Mr 6 questions.

Mr 6 took looks of close up photos of himself and his new day pet who had now been named Tim the grasshopper. Mr 6 made a home for Tim and carried him from room to room giving him a tour of the house. “Mummy I’m going to miss him so much when I put Tim back in the garden, how many hours have I got left?”  You can see how attached Mr 6 and Tim were becoming -instant buddies.

At lunch time Mr 6 fed Tim with a tiny piece of carrot and you could clearly see Tim the grasshopper nibbling away, so all in all mummy  was very impressed with their new friend and their mini biology lesson.

Mr 6 was loving every single moment and when Mr 6 is happy then mummy is happy.

Mummy’s Lie Here It Comes

Look at this sad face 🙁 you can see Mr 6 is clearly upset, very upset.

Mr 6 had been placing Tim the grasshopper gently back into his home-made house when his leg got stuck on Mr 6’s hand and Tim’s leg came off! Tim was injured and the sadness that overcame Mr 6 at having accidentally injured his day pet was inconsolable tears. Now I’m all for building resilience in children but this pulled at my heart, so much that I lied,. “Mummy will Tim be OK?” Does it hurt him a lot?” and the first sentence that came out of this mummy’s mouth was “Don’t worry sweetheart it will grow back” There it is as I said it, I knew it was wrong I know that grasshopper legs don’t grow back, although something inside me in that moment thought it might grow back, anything to stop my little man hurting, it was either that or buying Mr 6 a puppy.

Mr 6 was too sad and too scared to watch Tim the grasshopper for much longer, so Tim was released back into the garden, back to his family. With Mummy saying “Wow look how well  Tim can still jump”.

As a Mummy have you told a lie?

Today Mr 6 has been making a book all about Tim and mummy did explain after extensive research online that Tim’s leg may grow back if he was till a nymph and in my eyes although the grasshopper was called Tim he was difinately a nymph, so Mr 6 doesn’t feel too bad and nor do I.

What lies apart from Santa and the Easter Bunny are Ok to tell kids? What have you said?

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Nathalie Brown

Child Behaviour Consultant at Easy Peasy Kids
Child Behaviourist and researcher. Creator of "Less tantrums. More smiles". I look at the bigger picture and think outside the box when working with children and their behaviour. Their world is different. As adults we sometimes forget this. Happiness Creator in my spare time. Eater of chocolate and cake.

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Comments

  1. Shame – poor Mr. 6 🙂
    My current lie is the tooth fairy – because it’s so much fun and the kiddos have strong suspicions so it’s turned into a sweet cat and mouse banter of “Now why on earth would I need old milk teeth ?”

  2. Oh my gosh…how could you look at that face and not want to console him by any means possible? I have told lies to my kids to protect them or keep them happy…It doesn’t happen very often but it does happen.

  3. Oh I’ve got a ripper, I told my kids you die when you get really old. “No don’t worry about me, I’m not old, I’ve got years ahead of me. You don’t die till you’re really really old” I know, it’s really really bad, but they were going on about me dying and how would they cope. Fingers crossed I never have to have that conversation.

  4. I try and be truthful – and sometimes they don’t want the truth – my response to an eight-year-old’s question of where do babies come from resulted in “that’s disgusting I don’t want to know any more, stop talking, I’m not listening, la, la, la” (hands over ears). But every now and then a little white lie to ease their feelings doesn’t hurt I’m sure.

  5. Little white lies perhaps. I think the problem is when you get found out. I will often lie about things with a guilty look on my face and they are always about silly things and my children just know.

    • Yes normally I’m very honest, we have now sat together and I have explained that legs don’t grow back unless they are babies and Mr 6 took it really well. It must of been one of his sensitive days x

  6. I do try and be as honest as I can where I can, but the odd white lie now and then is not the end of the world. I would have done something very similar in your situation. I may have in the past told such lies as “no I was not eating chocolate just then” 😉

    • As soon as I said it I felt bad for lying but I’ve made amends with Mr 6 and told him the truth which then turned into a opportunity to talk about lies and why we shouldn’t do it and a discussion on white lies 🙂

  7. Amanda Reece-Anderson says

    I initially signed up to comment to win the Target voucher, but then got caught up in reading your blogs (I should be working!) My son’s pet budgie Yo Yo flew away, and we have many many magpies in the area that have been watching Yo Yo closely. We drove around in the car looking for him, but but no luck. My son was very upset, so I told him that Yo Yo just wanted to be free with all the other birds in the area. That was 6 months ago, and every now and then, he wonders if Yo Yo will come home.

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