Liar, Liar, Underpants on Fire

Emma makes my job as a Mama very easy. Yes we butt heads a few times a day, and her attitude can sometimes drive me crazy, but for the most part, she is very easy to please and get along with. We almost never have to punish her for anything. 

Which is good, be cause I hate to punish and don't really feel like it serves much of a purpose for the most part. 

There are, however, a few things I absolutely will not tolerate- the top of that list is lying. Every since Emma first entered the phase where kids have a tendency to try to get out of trouble by making up stories or by lying, we have explained to her that though she may get in a little trouble for telling the truth if what she is doing is not ok, she would get in much bigger trouble if she lied. 

Mostly the "little trouble" constituted a, "That's not ok, don't do it again" speech and that's about it.  

Lying, however, gets a person in a lot more trouble as Emma found out last Wednesday. 

As I am sure you may have noticed by now, in our house we tend to lounge in pj's most days.

In our pj's working in the tent

Sometimes those most days happen to be in a row. Last Wednesday when Emma and I were getting ready to head up to Gramma's, I had asked Emma to get changed (out of the pj's she had been wearing for the last 2 days). I came back from doing something and she was still wearing her pj's. 

Mama- "Why didn't you change?"

Emma- "I asked Da if I could wear my pj's again and he said yes."

Mama- "Ok, did you at least change your undies?" (with a skeptical look)

Emma- "Yes."

Mama- "So you took off your pj pants, changed your undies, and put your pj pants back on." (still highly doubtful)

Emma- "Yes."

Mama- "Ok, I believe you." 

And we headed out. When we stopped at our usual place for a potty break (Gramma lives 3 hours away), I noticed that Emma's undies had not been changed. 

When I pointed that out to Emma, she said, "Oops, I forgot. I am really sorry." Right and I was born yesterday. So I explained to her that I really do not like being lied too, and that for lying to me there would be some serious consequences. I asked her what she thought they should be.

Emma- "No t.v. at Gramma's?" We were only going to be at Gramma's for 3 days and with all the "new" things to play with, I doubted that would get the point across. 

Mama- "How about no t.v. for a week."

Emma- "A WEEK!?" (This coming from the child that loves t.v. so much, she will take pictures of what she is watching)

Magneto from X-Men

Mama- "Lying is a serious offense. It really is not ok to lie."

Emma- "Ok. I am really sorry."

So, this week has been... easier than I expected. She did mention a few times that she wished she could watch t.v. and we talked a bit about why she couldn't but she managed to survive. She has even managed to discover/rediscovered some new and exciting things to do.

Dancing on the bed to Taylor Swift. 

While we are not big on punishments, and being punished is never fun, I feel like Emma got the point and will remember (for a while anyway) that lying only gets her in bigger trouble.