Your Kid is a Liar

Well, maybe not your kid. But my kid is. And it’s completely unintentional but seriously, kids are liars. Bold-faced, unabashed liars. As a teacher I feel it’s my duty to share this with you because it is extremely important that you take everything your kid says with a grain of salt. Because your kid is a liar.

Case in point: Marcus had t-ball the other night. I wasn’t able to make it because I was sick so David took the kids. David must not have noticed that Marcus came home with a ball that didn’t belong to him. This is the conversation that took place between Marcus and I:

Marcus (on stairs): Look mom, the coach gave me a ball!

Me (in kitchen): What do you mean? Why did he give you a ball?

Marcus: I dunno, he just gave it to me. I don’t know why.

Me: Did the other kids get a ball too?

Marcus: I don’t know, I got a ball though.

Me: Well what did he say when he gave it to you?

Marcus: He said, “Here Marcus. This is for you.” Then he gave it to me. See, it says Marcus on it.

Me: Oh. That doesn’t say Marcus honey, that says Marlins. Do you think that maybe
you thought that ball said Marcus and you thought it was yours?

Marcus: It says Marlins? Are you sure? It doesn’t say Marcus?

Me: Look honey, it starts with Mar, just like your name, but look at these letters. Do you have these letters in your name? Did your coach actually GIVE you the ball, or did you just see it on the ground and thought it had your name one it?

Marcus: Hmm. Maybe my coach didn’t give it to me.

You see, with less than three minutes of interrogation I got to the root of it. I didn’t even have to torture him. I should work for CSIS. The thing is, Marcus wasn’t intentionally lying. For whatever reason, he thought his coach had given him a ball with his name on it. He believed that his coach had given him that ball for keeps. He created this scenario in his mind in which his coach gave him a ball.

So if your child comes home from school with some whack-a-doodle story about some hijinks that occurred in class, take a minute to do some investigative parenting. There could be more to the story.