Terry's 3M's
Meditations, Mutterings, Madness
My son always seems to be in trouble and most of the time he does not understand why. You see, he is the defender of the underdog. And he has a quick temper. So, when he sees his cousins fighting amongst themselves, he steps in with his fists flying.
Of course, I can't allow that, so, he ends up sitting on the stairs alot. He also is crying because I am so mean as to punish him when he was just trying to help.
Then the other parties are called in to explain things and end up sitting on the stairs as well.
Bill Cosby is right. The people who say that children are wonderful because they are so truthful don't know what they are talking about. Kids lie. My charges lie even though they know that in many cases, the punishment for the lie will be much worse than the punishment would be if they told the truth.
Sometimes, though, truth is relative to the knowledge that the child possesses.
Many years ago, when I was maybe 8 or 9, my brothers and I were playing Gunsmoke. We were in the playroom. I had on an old dress of my mother's and I was the dance hall girl.
Dance hall girls need a stage to perform on and we didn't have one. So, we tipped an old upholstered arm chair on it's side and I got up to do the cancan. I was doing quite well until I slipped. I slid off the chair and fell right into the window and broke it.
My poor brother, Michael. He was the middle kid and he got blamed for everything. All of us always lied and blamed Michael whenever things got broke. The other three boys would back me up when I said that Michael did it, and I did the same for them.
Not this time, though. This was too big of an offense.
My father took me aside and asked me what happened. He told me that if I broke the window on purpose, he would have to punish me. But, if it was an accident, I wouldn't be punished. I hadn't a clue as to what he was talking about. Accident? On purpose?
I said the only thing I could. I told him that I did it accidently on purpose.
I can still see him trying not to laugh. And I didn't get punished.
for the border background.