Little White Lies

If I've mentioned it once, I've mentioned it a hundred times.  My littlest girl is cheeky.  She's a hoot.  And, she knows it.

I was just reading one of my mummy updates from babycenter.com that gets emailed to me about developmental milestones, etc.  In it, experts state that, "five year olds are pretty good at distinguishing truth from fiction, but they still fail to tell the truth on occasion."  

This made me laugh out loud.  I know this to be inarguably true with Cally more than any other of my children.  Sweet Ella didn't get her first time out until she was six because she told a lie.  Buddy does lie sometimes, but does it so horribly and then his face flushes and he spills out the truth before I can even process what he's telling me.  Cally, on the other hand....well, she's been telling little white lies for as long as I can remember.

Only Cally doesn't call them lies.  Instead, she will come clean when she's done something cheeky.  She just calls it an accident.  For example, I accidentally ate-ed all my chocolate (when I clearly told her she could just have a bite).  And, I almost always know she's lying because she'll get so defensive.  If I ask her a question about something, before there has been any accusation made, she'll very firmly say no-wah!  As in, Cally, were you playing with your barbies over here? (Her no-wah response tells me without a doubt that she was).

I'm not too worried though.  I've read on multiple parenting resources that learning to lie is a developmental milestone.  It's normal.  In fact, experts say you should worry more if your child doesn't learn to lie.  My mummy update says, "sometimes they lie to avoid disappointing you or to escape punishment.  Sometimes they like to see the ruckus that results when you show a lot of emotion when you catch them in a lie."

That makes me laugh, too.  With Cally, I know that it's all three.