Parental Trickery

There are a few half-truths we are perpetuating these days. Our intentions are good - to keep Ella from developing bad habits of one form or another. Are we hurting anyone by these little deceptions? I think not. I tell her the sun goes to bed every night and the moon goes to sleep in the morning, so I hope that doesn't stifle any desire to be an astro physicist or anything.

One notable moment last month was when I convinced Ella that the rectangular white truck with the music playing and pictures of ice cream on the side is a "Music Truck." I also realized last week that she thinks McDonalds is called "Old McDonalds" (she came up with this on her own, actually), but she requests apples when we drive by one. As far as she knows, they only serve chicken nuggets (which we have at home sometimes, so therefore aren't that exciting), apple slices and milk. Dan will share fries when he gets them, but so far she doesn't know they are really an option.


Below is a picture from a family picnic last month, where Ella got to pick a prize and chose a squirt gun like her second cousin, Evan. It was purple and let her be like the big kids,

so I could see her excitement. I was horrified but hardly wanted to pry it from her hands after she had claimed it. So we called it a "water squirter" and conveniently misplaced it when we got home.

So I will continue to chalk it all up to my good intentions, and hope that in her teenage years she doesn't use this very blog (and admissions of convenient deceptions) as part of her own defense!