I believe in honesty. As a mature adult I believe it is our job to instill appropriate manners, morals and beliefs in our children with honesty being of the utmost importance. I mean why live it or say it if it's not real.
As a youngster I grew up telling my stories with what I considered just a little extra pizazz. I liked to spice them up, really give the people something worth listening too. For example, if I had completed two pages of homework I might say that I completed six. If I jumped rope for three minutes straight I might say that I jumped for ten or maybe even 12 depending on the day and/or the audience. As I matured into a young lady I'd possibly brag to my girlfriends about talking on the phone with my boyfriend for an hour when really it may have been 20 minutes. Anyhow, you get the idea...
After meeting my husband Charles he told me that while this habit of exaggerating was humorous at times and in some ways quite endearing it was also a bit dishonest. Well, I didn't like that one bit. I never wanted to be seen as a dishonest person and would never want to mislead anyone. I set out to manage my exaggerations better and to stick to the facts when at all possible. One thing was for sure, I didn't want to teach this exaggerating thing to my children.
In a larger family "survival of the fittest" very often can be a way of life. I've found that an average week at the grocery store requires between two or three visits (no exaggeration, promise). We acquire enormous amounts of snack products ranging from chips to cookies to cakes to ice cream. Now with the large amount of goodies that come into this house you'd think we'd be all set and capable of living harmoniously without fighting over who gets what. Between our family and the play dates around here our goodies can vanish in days and sometimes even hours.
I know I'm not a child anymore and actually I'm proud to say that I'm o.k with that. I do however still enjoy my "sweet and salty goody" every now and then and I absolutely believe that I am entitled to this without harassment. I like to concentrate on the crunch or the sugary sweetness of the item I'm divulging in without sharing a single bit of it with anyone. I don't feel bad about that at all. I've been known to grab a snack and cautiously try to find a quiet corner in our home to enjoy it. This can be challenging. Typically, a child will follow or possibly hear the crinkling of the wrapper from the other room notifying the other children as they all race towards me like a bunch of wild horses. At this time I think fast and quickly find a spot in a pocket, up my shirt, possibly pushed into my scarf, depending on what I'm wearing that day this could be easy or hard to conceal. Within moments I'm surrounded like a frightened child on a playground, suspicious eyes groping me up and down. All at once they ask, "what are you eating"? At this time I slowly turn my body towards them, I look each and every one of them directly in the eye and with complete and utter confidence and absolutely no guilt whatsoever, I say "I'm not eating anything"!
Now, you may think that I'm a bad person. You might even consider me to be a hypocrite and claim that this behavior is a form of dishonesty. Actually, you are free to say whatever you want and I'm o.k with it because at that very moment all I wanted to do was eat "my goody" all by myself. I felt completely entitled to do that! I just wanted to get that out into the open and let the world know. I feel much better now.
Thanks for listening.
