There are certain qualities that you want to instill in your child. Kind, considerate, explosive double leg takedowns, and honesty are all near the top of the list. As important as the blast double is, I need to focus on that final quality today. Honesty: Is it truly the best policy? Although I want my son to be truthful, I wasn't totally disappointed when we were able to catch him in a lie for the first time.
He has been getting into the arts. Drawing and coloring with markers, crayons, and colored pencils, he is exploring his creative side. Is he creating masterpieces? Tough to say as art is subjective, and I think he's doing a pretty great job.
One of the big points we try to hammer home is to only color on the paper, and he does a great job of following that direction. But my wife left him alone for a few minutes, and he had actually started using his markers to color the rug. My wife asked him why he wasn't following the rules of coloring on paper, and he responded that "Kimber (the dog) said carpet." My wife tried to follow up to confirm that Kimber told him to, and he was adamant that yes, Kimber told him to color on the carpet. I'm glad it wasn't me who ran into this situation, because I would not have been able to hold in my laughter and probably would have created a serial liar for the rest of his life, but my wife was able to keep it together enough so he wouldn't be totally encouraged to lie about everything in life.
But here's the thing, we still don't know if he's lying. This could be a Dog with a Blog situation where Kimber can actually talk, but she just never talks to the adults. That'd be a real kick in the nuts, because I'm guessing her blog would be way more successful than this one.
My wife's composure in the situation seems to have worked. A little later that day, while he was working on a puzzle, I asked him if the puzzle was complicated, and he responded, "Mom is complicated."
Truer words have never been spoken.