The Truth

Ryan was home all week, which is especially exciting for Brooke. She loves to have her fun, big brother home and it usually requires me to have to explain some life lesson to her after exposure.

The other night she was in his room and I heard lots of giggles as she would come out and say "Ryan said a bad word" every few minutes. I went in to see what this was all about and he said she was saying the ol' H-E- double toothpicks over and over and reporting back to me that Ryan was saying it, but that he actually started it when she walked in by saying, "Hey, what da hell up?" Me asking Ryan caused her to hide her face under the blankets, cause she was so busted. I asked, "Brooke, is Ryan saying the bad word now or is BROOKE?". She would hide again and say "Ryan". Time for a little lesson on the difference between a lie and the truth.

I sat explaining over and over again that a lie was when you did not tell what really happened and the truth was when you did. So, after each time I changed the wording to see if she got it, I would ask her to please tell the truth. She would say, "Ryan said it". This went on for about ten minutes and I was starting to stress thinking that she just would not tell the truth. Today it is a bad word, tomorrow who knows??

I finally used the birthday threat, which comes in handy in many situations, "Children that tell lies can't have a birthday party. Now tell mommy the truth.". Since she is within weeks of a birthday and this sounded serious to a person about to turn 4, she sat up said "Okay, then!", as she crossed her arms and lowered her lip in pout, "Ryan said one twewff and I said lots of twewffs!!!!!".

Okay, so she actually told the twewff, but has no idea what the word means.......