Little White Lies

                As a parent, you will find that you will have to lie to your kids sometimes.  I know, we all are told that we shouldn’t lie, but sometimes, you just have to do it. 
                I was talking to my son the other day and we were talking about Christmases past.  He told me how he remembered where on one particular Christmas, I kept watching the Santa tracker online.  When he reminded me of that, I had to laugh!  I remembered it too.  That year, the kids were excitedly waiting for Santa to come, but they wouldn’t go to bed.  I had bought my daughter a three foot tall doll house that I wanted to put together that night, so I really needed them to go to bed and to fall into a deep coma-like sleep.  Anyway, these kids were too amped to go to bed.  So I got on the computer to pass the time and stumbled onto a Santa Tracker site that tracked where Santa Clause was last spotted.  It turns out Santa was last seen in Maryland.  I told the kids that Maryland wasn’t too far from New York, and that Santa should be here soon.  They were excited!  The next time I checked, Santa was in Michigan.  I told the kids that I was confused.  Santa had to fly over New York to get from Maryland to Michigan. I even showed it them on the map.  I just looked at them sadly, shook my head and said, “I guess Santa couldn’t stop in New York because there are kids here who are still awake.”  Man … I had never seen those kids go to bed so fast!  That little lie worked wonders.
                One Easter, I realized that I had forgotten to put out the Easter baskets I made for them (the store bought baskets are always so cheaply made and don’t have enough candy and toys in them).  I thought to myself, “Damn, how am I going to get these baskets out of the hall closet without these kids seeing me?”  Well, let me tell you what I did.  I sent the kids into the bedroom to find something for me.  Once they left the room, I quickly got the baskets out of the closet, put them on the table, and yelled, “Oh my God you guys.  Come in here!”  When they ran into the room, I told them that they had just missed the Easter Bunny.  I told them that I saw the Easter Bunny standing next to me, so I turned to yell for them but that now he's gone.  I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that story, especially since my daughter didn’t even think twice about it.  She was happy for the basket.  But my son.  He looked at me, squinted his eyes, and asked in a slow, disbelieving voice, “What did he look like?”  He was looking at me with an expression on his face that said, “I don’t believe a work you just said.”   I looked that little boy straight in the eyes and without skipping a beat said, “He was big and brown.”  My son didn’t ask me any more questions after that.
                Santa, the Easter Bunny … those are the lies that we are all familiar with, but believe you me, they will probably not be the only lies you tell your kids.  You will sometimes tell a little white lie because you don’t want to hurt their feelings, you want to avoid a scene, you don’t feel like going into an explanation about something, or you just don’t feel like being bothered with their complaining and whining if you tell them the truth.  As much as we tell our kids not to lie, we don’t always lead by example, and we resolve to do better. 
                So, now you know …. Consider Yourself Warned!
                Parents, what “Little White Lie” have you told your kids?