Pants on Fire

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive."
- Sir Walter Scott

We've had to have some serious discussions on honesty around here. S came home from school with a thing of tinted lip gloss she had found on the playground. She was very excited thinking finders were keepers until I told her she needed to bring it back to school the next day and turn it into the office. I told her it was the type of lip gloss probably used by one of her teachers. She was a little crestfallen but woefully put it back in her backpack. The next morning, K comes into my room with about 12 lbs. of lip gloss smeared on her lips. "S gave me some MAKE-up!", she proudly proclaims. I come downstairs to find S with another 12 lbs. smeared on her lips. I tell her that was not a good thing to do and to put it back in her backpack for school.

She comes home after school, and I ask her about the lip gloss. She tells me that she did turn it in and it was Mrs. J's. I tell her I am proud of her for doing the right thing even though I know she wanted to keep it.

Fast forward to parent-teacher conferences when her teacher hands me the SAME tinted lip gloss and says S has been keeping it in her desk. I confront S and she tells me, "I really did think I gave it to Mrs. J." So now evidently THINKING you did something is the same as REALLY doing it. Not quite.

And then there is K. I hear a raucious fight break out between her and S when they are downstairs where I can't see them. I come in to break it up and K says, "S hit me." Darren hauls S off for a talking to and a time out while I interrogate K. "Did you do anything to make her hit you, " I ask K with my best "bad cop" impression. She stares up at me with big, brown eyes and seriously shakes her head. "Are you sure?" I ask her again because the story is a little fishy to me. "No, I DIDN'T!" she vehemently denies.

When S's time out is over, Darren comes out to talk with K. "S says you hit her. Did you hit her?" Darren asks. K looks at me. She looks at Darren. She looks back at me. Then, she cocks one eyebrow, looks at Darren and says, "Why, did she tell you something?"

BUSTED. And a wailing liar, liar pants on fire goes off for a time out and a talking to of her own.