Stephanie Morrill

Honesty Maybe to the Point of Stupidity

25 June 2009

I had a fabulous blog idea last night, but of course I was stupid and thought, “I’ll remember this tomorrow morning.” Do I ? NO. So instead I’ll have to talk about something else.

I don’t know if this is a normal thing for a child, but McKenna is way into telling me what she’s not allowed to touch/do. Often while she’s doing it. Like this morning, she was in her high chair as I toasted a bagel for us. I’d given her a handful of Cheerios to eat while she waited, then turned and focused on getting her “real” breakfast ready. Behind me, I heard McKenna saying, “No.” I turned and saw she was offering a Cheerio to KC, our dog, which she knows she isn’t allowed to do. I said, “That’s right, McKenna. Don’t feed KC.”

Yesterday I was in my room washing my face and McKenna was across the hall playing in her bedroom. I heard her saying, “No.” I popped my head around the corner and saw she had the diaper cream tube in her mouth (which used to I didn’t really care about, but now she’s figured out how to pop off the top with her teeth. Gross.)

She does this kind of stuff all the time, which is amusing on one hand, but on the other, if she knows she’s not supposed to, WHY DOES SHE KEEP DOING IT? Which I’ve asked her, but of course I receive a blank look.

And it occurred to me that if God asked me something similar, I’d have no idea how to respond either. Why were you selfish? You know you’re not supposed to be. Why did you lie about that? You know you’re not supposed to. Of course I know. And of course I expect punishment when I do something wrong. Yet I keep doing it.

So I’m trying to be patient with McKenna on this one, but sheesh. I’m wondering if this blatant honesty will transfer to her teenage years. Like if at breakfast she’ll tell us she snuck out the previous night, or something. Or, if she follows her current patterns, maybe she’ll call out to us as she climbs out the window. A parent can hope, right?

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