We had our first little lesson in truth and lies today. This was Anastasia's first complete day without me at school. Cody woke up with a sore throat. Gary took the younger 2 to school so I could stay with Cody and get him to the doctors. The last time she had most of the day at school to herself, she choose not to eat any of her sandwich at lunch and only at the snacks and dessert, then told the teacher she had no snack, haha, testing the reigns of independence and freedom of choice.
So overall it seems her first day totally without me went great. Until my eyes settled on her pretty little face and noticed that there was a chunk of hair missing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we have a hair cutter!! Honestly I felt a little honored I mean as a boy Mom I may have never gotten to deal with this, but it seems every little girl deals her hand into a little hair chopping.
So I figured I'd give her a chance to out herself. My first thought was, well maybe she has no clue that this would not be acceptable. So I asked her, "Did you cut your hair" Of course she said no. "Mmm, I think you did, look at that piece right there."
At this point her teacher asked her, I mean that's who she owed the truth to really, it was on her clock that she cut her hair! And out came a big old creative whopper out of my precious daughter's mouth. " I was cutting a paperwork and I cut my hair, I not mean to" Her teacher expressed to her that she hoped she was telling the truth because if not she would have to take her scissors away from her like she does the other children when they do something they shouldn't with their scissors. But that was her story and she was sticking to it!! I even let her know that if she told me the truth that the punishment would be little but if she told me another lie that it would be big, and she choose to stick by her lie.
How I wished she had told the truth because I missed her while she was away all day, that is the longest I've been away from her. I just wanted to kiss her squishy cheeks I didn't want to have to deal out punishments and teach a lesson on telling the truth.
So when we got home she choose to stay by her lie, and laugh about it! Oh boy!
So she got 2 punishments, one was writing her teacher a letter to apologize.
And of course we had a long talk about lies and truth. Due to the language barrier, lies were explained as fake, and truth is what really happened. I know she knew that cutting her hair was wrong, she hid the evidence! She admitted to that. However it seemed to me she did not understand how wrong lying really is. Lying is a federal offense in my house, DO NOT DO IT!
Before bed she told me she did not want to make bad choices anymore and can I please tell her how to stop. I told her what a good girl she is (she truly is) and that sometimes we make bad choices, everyone, and that we need to try harder, and next time she needs to tell me the truth no matter what. I explained to her that God wants us to make good choices and when we don't he gets sad. I have to tread God lessons lightly because she is having a hard time understanding. She asked if I could lay in bed with her and talk because she had lotsa lotsa trues to tell me.
We love laying in bed talking. We used to do it so much more before school started.
I think saddly she learned something today that maybe has not been reinforced in her before.
Sounds like she is beginning to get some understanding about telling the truth. Isn't it a downer when you go to pick them up from school only to have to start the afternoon on a negative. Although kids do need to learn about telling the truth at sometime, so I guess the end result is positive. My son struggles with telling the truth, even when he's not really in any trouble. Last time he lied I told him that his Papa tells the truth and his Grandad tells the truth (lucky we have some fantastic role models in our family) and that I want him to grow up to be like them. He seemed to understand this, but I guess time will tell!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're doing all the right things.
Cara, I lied ALL THE TIME when I was a kid, for no reason at all; even when I wasn't in trouble. I still have no idea why I did it.
ReplyDeleteDrew once cut his bedspread. When I asked why, he said he wanted to know what was inside that kept him so warm. I freaked out and asked him if he was going to cut the dog open to see what was inside her. His response? "I don't have to. I know what's inside Dixie: blood and guts." ROFL!
Eva
We've had some lying issues since we got our daughter in December. It's not very fun! I love it that you cut her hair though. That's a classic! And we have also had to write several apology notes to teachers...
ReplyDeleteJenn @ buildingmommymuscles.blogspot.com