I've been wondering...does Munchausen by Proxy only affect mothers? You only ever see women doing this. It's a bizarre condition.

We had some fun and games tonight regarding lying. Kids get away with a lot of it, certainly. But once in a while there's an opportunity for a lesson. Tonight Emma looked me straight in the eyes and told me a bold-faced lie. And even with that cutie patootie little fudge-a-licious face, sometimes a line has to be drawn.

Daddy had told her "no more tv for today"...which she pouted about initially but realized soon that resistance is futile. A little while later I noticed her in her room, fiddling with a tape in the VCR, and the tv was on. I said "Whatcha doing?" and she said "I'm watching Cinderella".

"You are?"
"yup...do I hafta rewind it?"
"Did Daddy tell you that you could come and watch a movie?"
"yep."
"What did he say?"
"He said go upstairs and you can watch a movie"

I knew this was a lie for 2 reasons. First, I know Mark wouldn't go back on something he said like "When this show is over, no more tv." If he said that, he means it and he will follow through. Also, he never would have sent her upstairs to watch a movie alone, without some assistance with the VCR. She knows how to do it herself, but he always comes up with her anyway..to make sure. If a movie does need rewinding, that's the part that always gives her trouble.

I said:
"I'm going to go ask Daddy if he said you could watch a movie, ok?"
"Noo..!" (Now she tried to block me from going downstairs, where daddy was...)
"Noo, nell..."

So she faced the judge jury and executioner and had to admit to Mark that she outright lied to my face. She knew that she'd told a lie, cause she knew that moment when she'd been caught. She didn't get in trouble, she just had to go back to what she was originally supposed to be doing..which was "playing something else.." after a Mark style 'talking to'. Heh. He never ever raises a hand to her, which is a different approach than I took with my kids..but fair dues to him he makes it work. The simple change in tone of his voice and the calm, even, cadence of the reprimand is enough to even make me turn an ear when I hear it.

I went up to her room after about 5 minutes and asked her if she wanted to paint or read, or something. We painted at the kitchen table for a good long while and I tried to explain to her we wanted to turn the tv off not cause we were punishing her, but that we felt she would have more fun doing things like...painting. And sometimes someone will paint with you, and sometimes it's nice just find things to do on your own. After a few pictures she took a long toy-filled bath..and now is happier than a pig in shit.