When I was in grade three, I remember faking being sick at school by putting my head on my desk and telling the teacher I didn’t feel well. My mum was called to come and pick me up and when I got home, I was (to my mum’s surprise) full of energy and completely fine. Can you relate???
So what did my loving mother do?
She taught me a lesson…..
- No I didn’t get to stay home and have fun mummy/daughter time
- No she didn’t smack me
- No she didn’t send me to my room
She decided that if she didn’t want her daughter to be a manipulative liar and that if I wasn’t truly sick then there was no reason for me to be at home and my mum dragged my sorry backside back to school and explained to my teachers that I was fine.
Guess what?
I never did it again!
The humiliation and embarrassment of being caught out was a fantastic deterrent.
Shoutout to my mum for doing a good job raising me to be honest!
I’m that honest these days that a few years ago I went on a cruise ship with my mum and aunty and when asked to fill in the passenger card about whether you’ve had runny poos I said yes (I had eaten curry) so then I got escorted straight to my room and had to stay in lockup for 24hrs! Haha. Honest to a fault!
So well done mums! Sometimes you make the toughest of choices hoping you’re teaching solid life lessons and whilst you may feel bad at the time using tough love, you too can have a story like this from your daughter one day thanking you for it- Keep up the great work!