A guest post from Lakewood Leah
I have a set in stone policy not to lie to my kids. It's extremely important to me, and I will go to great lengths to avoid lying. However, after this evening, I wonder if sometimes perhaps it's ok to embellish the truth.
My preschool age son was watching Bambi and asked me what happened to Bambi's mother. In my defense, he loves watching scary movies (age appropriate of course) that involve fighting and killing. I happen to hate when he watches those movies, and it bothers me how much violence and innuendo are in Disney movies and the like, but that's for another discussion. I've pretty much banned most Disney movies, but I figured Bambi was clean enough and I let him watch it. When he asked me why someone told Bambi that his mother can't be there anymore, I told him that she was killed. I know, sue me. What a terrible thing to tell a 4 year old. But like I said, these things never seemed to bother him before. However, he starting obsessing over it and asking a lot of questions. I discussed it with my husband, and we realized that in most of the other movies, it's always the bad guy who ends up dead.
I want to tell him that I made a mistake and she really just fell and hurt herself, but he's sleeping now. I feel like a horrible mother. But it also really bothers me to lie to him even if he has no way of knowing the truth. Am I taking this too far? Is lying to your kids ok when necessary?
Search for more information about keeping your distance from falsehoods at 4torah.com.
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