Little LIAR

Some folks don't like reading "kid entries" but I find them a good springboard to related, sometimes deeper thoughts.

My three (3) year old is a liar. Mark this date--well, about a month or two back--he told his first lie. Sure, it wasn't very convincing, but it was a milestone. I've been pondering this ever-since...how did he come about this business of lying? (Certainly not honestly!) I guess, maybe, it has been modeled by television characters, relatives...maybe even by me(?) but how could such a wee one pick up such a devious craft by observation?

My wife had a good theory: self-preservation. In order to avoid pain, he fabricates. He's been telling stories and using his imagination since he could utter, and she thinks he is simply applying story-telling to avoidance.

I take a darker view.

His innocence is gone. Vaporized in a few short, twisted, untruths. No longer is he the pure little innocent who would fess up to anything. Now he has joined the ranks of the enlightened. In this little way, he is matured. I wish he would always have been honest. I did not know how attractive that quality was until I experienced it through him. (I've not known anyone else who's purely honest, ever!) Now, another little bit of him is...gone.

It's as if he's taken from the tree of knowledge, and he's learned deception is the order of the day. Now he will begin half-stepping and half-truthing his way through so many perils, complicating his life by having to build lie on top of lie. His world will now be eggshells. He will be ensnared in lies. He will be tripped up by lies. He will, if he has not already, be injured by someone else's lies.

At first I was amused. "Did you poop your pants, son?"/"No, Roger [our beagle] did it."

Now, I find little humor in even his most inventive lies. I see them for what they are: grown up.