Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Be Careful What You Say to Little Children.

Seriously, folks.

About a month ago, we had a little issue with Berlyn.

Lying.

Oy. Really? Already? She’s only four. I guess it starts earlier than I thought.

Her dad and I were watching 'Pan’s Labyrinth'. 
(If you’ve never seen it, there is a hideous monster in it. He has no eyes…well, he does. They are on his hands. And he eats little children. I am totally not making this up.)

This is a foreign film, fyi. And it’s pretty messed up but well, I typically like that sort of thing.

Anyways, one evening Berlyn had been grounded for about 3 nights straight. For lying. We had no idea how to convey to her the importance of telling the truth.
I had already tried the Pinocchio tactic numerous times...."Your nose is growing, Berlyn." She would stop, feel her nose and yell "No, it's NOT!!!"

Fail.

So, her dad says, “See that guy? (points to monster), he doesn’t like lying. His name is Frank. I have his number in my phone.”

You should have seen Berlyn’s face. Priceless.

Odd how we are trying to teach her the importance of lying, when, we - her parents, are…well, lying.

So, over the next few days, here and there, when she was misbehaving her dad would say “Want me to call Frank?” and she would scream “NO!!!!”

Today, she walked up to me with 2 strawberry hard candies on her hands, held them up to her eyes and said, “Mommy, I’m Frank.”




 God, I totally forgot about that. Guess that sort of stuff does stick...


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