Cereal and Deception
My daughter, whom we shall here on in refer to as “Spanky”, is starting to learn deception. This morning she came into the kitchen where I was prepping a bottle for her brother, and she walked right by me to dump the remains of her cereal into a bucket and hide the bucket. (Why not just use the trash?)
She then holds the empty bowl up and says, “I’m still hungry.”
“You want more cereal?” I ask her.
“Yes.”
“What about that cereal?” I point at the bucket.
“It doesn’t have marshmellows any more,” Spanky replies.
I let out a big sigh and ask her if maybe she’d rather have an orange than a bowl of cereal she’ll only eat a fifth of.
Spanky replies, “Oooh! Oranges!” and our kitchen drama ends.
But it made me think. My little girl is learning deception. Sure, it’s not great deception, but she figured out that an empty bowl is more convincing, and she artificially emptied it. It really doesn’t take long for the shine to wear off of innocence. And it’s not because we are cruel, or devious, or innately evil- it’s simply selfishness. We prize our own desires more than truth or sincerity, so we lie.
Through my children I have learned that everything is learned. They come out knowing nothing, not even knowing how to purposefully get a hand to their mouth. A great deal they learn through trial and error, they learn a bit from observation, but mostly they are taught. And now I embark on another teaching adventure. I teach my daughter that sincerity and truth are prized more in this household than her desires are. It’s not a lesson I really want to give, as I know it will hurt her, but it’s one I have to give, so I will.
And in that way, she is also teaching me about God.
Life is so… like life. There’s nothing else like it.
M54 replied:
Lindsey; good parents are as hard to find as good Christians.
I have, at times, referred to new born babies (regarding learning) as those sponges with the big holes in them. If we allow it those holes will become filled with the things of this world. However, if we are attentive and purposeful we can sow into those holes the things of the Lord so that one day when it rains on them the right things will come forth.
May 22, 2008 at 12:17 pm. Permalink.
sydcatholic80 replied:
Hey Lindsey,
Oh how that reminds me of my childhood. I was sneaky too. My pet hate was peas. I would eat slow, so that mum and dad would eventually retire to the lounge to watch the news, and then I would quietly slip about 1/2 my peas back into the pan. It would look too suspicious to put them all back. Of course, if the pan was already empty, that trick wouldn’t work. And I didn’t have the guts to stick them in the bin, too easy to get caught.
Life is a classroom. We are always learning. There is always a person or situation that teaches us new things about life.
And God is ever the parent, watching us.
May 22, 2008 at 2:02 pm. Permalink.
jaklumen replied:
Yeah, I have to admit I did it, too.
There were these cherry-flavored fluoride tablets I thought were nasty. I couldn’t have been much older than Spanky at the time. So I stuffed them into the hole of a handset of a play “pay” telephone I had at the time. (That way they “disappeared”, as opposed to when I put them in the coin slot.)
May 23, 2008 at 10:48 pm. Permalink.
wvhillcountry replied:
Lindsey, I used to stuff my vitamin in a crack in the basement wall. They weren’t chewable and they gagged me when I tried to swallow them.
By the way, I had to stop buying cereal with marshmallows for a while. I would find little abandoned piles of wet soggy cereal minus the marshmallows. lol
May 24, 2008 at 10:47 am. Permalink.
e2tc replied:
By the way, I had to stop buying cereal with marshmallows for a while. I would find little abandoned piles of wet soggy cereal minus the marshmallows. lol
Hee hee!
May 25, 2008 at 2:27 am. Permalink.