An Honest Answer

We've been working a lot on honesty with our kids lately... For several years now to be more realistic. It's a challenge. How to discipline and train and encourage when dishonesty comes into play. How to encourage honesty while making room for normal mistakes and slip ups that happen. 

There's been a lot of "Are you being honest?" and "Is that the true?" and "Thank you for being honest, I appreciate that." lately.

I guess my two year old must've been absorbing some of all this because he recently completely surprised me with an honest answer.

A little back story. 

My daughters got slime making kits from the library. They made slime with the understanding of sharing it with their little brother. Little brother got some on a fuzzy blanket that I just cleaned and it DOESN'T come off. 

So, when I saw slime on my new rug, I was upset. 

"There's slime on the carpet" I moaned to my husband, "And it doesn't come off!" I began to scrub at it in frustrations with no results. My little son walked over while I was down on my knees attack the slime and said "Me. Me". I looked at him. He was telling me he had got the slime on the rug.

"Thank you for telling me." I said in surprise, then "But we don't want slime on the carpet, okay?"

"Yes. Mom." He said in his adorable little boy voice, breaking up the two words like they were each a separate sentence. 

I melted and immediately turned to my husband to tell him what our son had done. I was so impressed. From the little boy who always says "No" to the question "Did you poop?" Whether he has or not, to come up to his frustrated mom and tell her he had done it. Wow. 

Honesty matters!

But, I think also for me, this is a reminder that MY RESPONSE MATTERS. How I respond to those honest answers and mistakes helps my kids feel either safe to share or scared to get caught. I'm going to work on this one.

Do you have any honesty stories you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!

Much love,
-Joy