It's Never the Wrong Time

This reminds me of a story I read in the book Chicken Soup for the Soul. It went something like this:

A father took his 3 children to the aquarium and there were three different ticket prices based on ages. The youngest child had just turned 5, and did not qualify for the free admission, and the father, rather than lying to the ticket officer about the age of his 5 year old, bought the child’s priced ticket. The attendant asked, “why didn’t you just tell me that he was under 5, I would have never known?” The father replied… “but, he would have.”

This story is a great example of doing the right thing in front of your children. That lesson of being honest might have slipped by his son; however, had the father lied, and stated aloud, that he wanted 1 adult ticket, 2 children’s tickets, and 1 child under 5, his child definitely would have heard that untruth. What would the underlying message be for his developing brain? Maybe that it’s ok to lie? Maybe that his last birthday wasn’t relevant?  

Though the honest answer might have slipped by, the accumulation of hearing your parents be honest in all situations becomes ingrained in the child’s moral and value systems as they become adults.