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L-L-Liar

The other day Mallory came home from school and said that she hadn't gotten her hot lunch. The teacher said she wasn't on the list, so sorry, and poor Mallory was hungry all day long. Chris and I were all outraged and I stormed into the principal's office the next morning demanding why Mallory hadn't been fed and why no one had notified me of the problem. (Well, if you know me at all, you'll know that storming and demanding are not things that I do. I inquired without smiling. Take that!) The school secretary was concerned and promised to investigate and the upshot of it all was that Mallory lied. She completely lied. She did get her lunch, she ate some of it, but she was really hungry when she got home from school and wanted a really big snack so she just lied.

(The secretary was so nice about it. When she told me that Mallory did in fact have lunch I said, "I'm sorry that she's a big liar" and she said, "Oh no, I'm sure she was just confused!" Yes, we'll go with that. She also said that she'd make a point of checking on Mallory during lunch for the few weeks. So now Mallory is Problem Lunch Child.)

Mallory also told her best friend a few days ago that we were going to have a new baby. Also a lie! Very much a lie!

We've had, of course, the don't-be-a-big-liar talk with her. I'm trying not to worry too much about her becoming some kind of criminal. It must be kind of hard for kids to "get" that it's wrong to lie. We're always encouraging them to use their imaginations and to "go play pretend" and such like; but then we tell them that they must always tell the truth. Maybe she IS just confused. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Comments

aimee said…
I'm laughing and thinking: It is all fun and games until it is your child.

I am sure that Mallory will be no criminal but she may be a wonderful writer!
1:47 PM
Anonymous said…
Maybe she knew that if she lied about not having lunch, she would get a snack. Pretty sly!

Mom
4:13 PM
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