Liar, Liar...Momma's Pants on Fire!

The Great Day had almost arrived.

Gideon had been sweeping floors, wiping counters, washing windows and sorting laundry like a madman.  What would posses a four-year-old to abandon his stress-free brother who would daily attempt to distract him from his mission with pleas to play superheroes and Legos in order to…DO CHORES?  He was single-minded as he worked to earn a “super-awesome” (his words) toy from the new movie Tron..  Literally.  Sometimes I asked him to take a break from chores because he was wearing me out just from watching him!

He was only a few chores away from the Great Day, the day we would go to purchase “the toy he had been dreaming about his whole life”.  He had first seen this amazing toy that was on sale for $13.99 (kid money translation when you earn .25 cents a chore is about $100) at Target and been dreaming and pining away for it ever since.

Dreaming about his Tron toy!

The day before we were set to go to Target, he voiced a big concern he had,

“Mom, what happens if we go to the store and the Tron toy is already gone?”

I was multi-tasking with baths and pajaming-dressing when he asked this and I gave him a half-there response..and I bet every parent out there knows exactly what I mean by that!

“It will be there bud.”  I said.

“Well…” His little brow furrowed in worry, “Are you sure?  Did you ask them to set one aside just for me?”

“Of course I did.”

“Well mom I know we’re ALWAYS supposed to tell the truth.  So, are you  telling me the truth?”

I froze mid-pajama-putting-on and smiled.  Hello there Pope Gideon the Second, I thought.

“You know…I lied.  I didn’t ask them to set aside a Tron toy for you.  I’m sorry for not telling the truth.”  Geez, who needs Jiminy Cricket around here with this guy?  I can’t believe I’m apologizing to a four year old.  I guess I better have a seat in the time-out-chair!


Gideon was quick to forgive.  When the Great Day arrived, the Tron toy was awaiting on the shelf at Target for his new owner.  Thankfully, the clerk didn’t mind getting paid in a mountain of quarters.

Just another day in the life.  Another day when my kids teach me more than I thought they would.  Another day when I remember that values and attitudes are really caught more than taught.

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. ~Josh Billings