liar

 i faced the music a LONG time ago.

my 5 year old is a professional liar!

i'm trying not to make a big fuss about it so he doesn't lie for attention.

we read the story about the boy that cried wolf.


i try giving him the benefit of the doubt. {which is VERY hard sometimes.} 

we nonchalantly read louder when in the scriptures we read about where liars go.

i lied to him and told him that when he lies, a small red dot appears on his forhead.(and for some reason, lying to teach someone not to lie just rubs me wrong.) and plus, that only produces mediocre results....

whatever.

i'm a bit a lot worried about this skill he has developed.

do you blame me???

just look at that cute little face!

the main reason it bugs me:

I CAN NOT TELL when he is lying.

it's not good! 

let me take that back....

it's USUALLY not good!

let me explain:

tonight the family piled into the good old minivan for a night of FUN!

first stop: Costco of course!

 and it WAS fun, even if the only samples available were from the HUMMUS man, whom we are very fond of.
after trying all 31 types of fresh hummus, towards the end of our venture, we walked past an "interesting" looking older woman.

even in my shopping imposed trance like state i noticed her....and her hair.

let's just say that she looked "peculiar." (bless her heart)

only problem is, justin NOTICED her peculiarity too.

well, that wasn't the only problem.

the other problem was that she noticed him noticing her for a way too long period of time.

and she didn't like it!

from behind us she snapped in a very bold tone,

"Why are you staring at me???
Do i have something black on my face??? 
Do i look funny or something???? 
I'm starting to get a complex!"

oh boy. 

with a white face, justin reluctantly chimed in when she actually took a breath, "no, you don't look funny."

i interjected to soften the tension in the air something like...."oh, i'm sorry mam....we're working on the whole staring thing..."

but it didn't help, so we walked away, hoping our paths wouldn't cross again.

and they didn't ....phew!

i know i have told him not to stare before....but what do i know!?

(i think he got to learn that lesson the hard way this time.:) )

5 minutes later while at the checkout he piped up,

"mom, i lied to that old lady."

"i didn't want to tell her that SHE DID LOOK FUNNY! 
her hair was all big and crazy.  
it would have made her feel even more bad! "

"you know, that is probably right," i agreed.

and for once, i greatly appreciated his well executed skills of deception.
he next informed me, "mom, the government lies all of the time too!"

and when he spoke that...it was the truth.

even our checker agreed.

and knowing that DOESN'T make me feel better either!



hmmm. the mother of a politician???

i think i'll need to take a few etiquette classes.

any tips?