To Tell the Truth
June 24th, 2009
Today Kyle(7) and I are butting heads a little.
He was preparing to make a ham sandwich and before he put his hand inside the bag of ham, I asked him if he’d washed his hands. He told me he had, but the way he paused to see what I’d say told me he was lying.
“Go wash your hands Kyle,” I said.
“I diiiid”, he said.
“You’re lying to me Kyle, now go wash your hands!”, and with that, he stomped off into the bathroom to wash his hands.
When he returned, he made his sandwich and ate. With only one bite to go he asked if he could go and play his second hour of video games when he was finished. This was when I informed him that I was tired of being lied to and that he was going to write sentences for me about it.
Of course the whole world came crashing down at that moment. After he calmed down he asked how many sentences he’d have to write. I asked him how many sentences he thought lying was worth. He thought for a moment and said 15. I know he was trying to low ball me because he knows that Kevin(9) got stuck writing 50 sentences once, for a much larger infraction that he’d been warned about multiple times. Fifteen sounded good to me, so I agreed.
I got out the tablet and considered for a moment what I should have him write. My first thought was “I will not lie to my mother about anything”, but I wasn’t fond of having the negative words in there. Not, lie. No, that needed to go. Affirmations are supposed to be in a positive light. I settled on and wrote across the top of the page, “I will always tell the truth.”
I informed him that he wasn’t to leave the chair and there would be no video games until he finished his fifteen sentences. He’s showing extreme resistance, but that’s what Kyle does. He can be very stubborn. Always wants everything HIS way and hasn’t been above stomping feet and screaming in the past. He doesn’t usually pull that with me because I don’t allow it.
He turned his chair to face away from the tablet. Then he pushed the tablet across the table out of his reach. Now he’s just sitting there looking at it. His resistance is wearing thin because his boredom is growing. It won’t be long now :)
When he gives in and writes what I asked him to, we’ll have to have a talk about how we’re a family unit and there can be no lies within the family unit. We’ve talked about lying before, but I think he’s in need of a little more depth of conversation now. He’s a little older and better able to understand.
I won’t tolerate lies in our home. The size of the lie is unimportant. We must always know that what we say to each other is honest and true. We are a unit… a team. Any team will break down if there’s not trust within.
So now… it’s a battle of wills. He’s determined to not write a single sentence and I’m determined to not give him the irrational, yelling, fed up, out of patience mom act that he’s so obviously trying to illicit from me.
Whoever came up with the idea to honor mothers one day a year should be smacked! LOL
