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Easter morning 20**, I woke up and ran downstairs buzzing like a bee, excited to go and get the chocolate the Easter bunny had left me. As I got down the stairs something white on the floor caught my eye. Below me were none only than Easter bunny footprints! I followed them, so excited to have a bit of the Easter Bunny left behind. They lead down into the lounge room where mine and my sister's chocolate lay next to the couch. I remember not seeing any footprints going out the door, so of course being the curious **** year old I was I asked 'Mum how did the Easter bunny get out of our house without leaving any footprints?' She replied with 'He flew out, sweetie' and of course, I had to know more so asked 'Why didn’t he just fly in as well?'. Before Mum had time to answer my sister butted in and said 'You know the Easter bunny isn't real. It has been mum all along.' You can just imagine the look that Mum gave her after that comment!
Remember back in the day when we were so young and naive, we believed everything we heard. The tooth fairy is real, Santa is real and we were so that innocent we believed that if we were naughty during the year, we would receive coal from Santa! Little did we know, that was all a lie.
Would you consider yourself a truthful person? Do you ever give people compliments that aren’t completely genuine?
Have you ever told someone you were doing well when, in reality, you were exhausted and having a terrible week? Do you ever tell people you are busy to avoid hanging out with them? Even though you may think you are a truthful person, statistics show we lie a minimum of 1-2 times a day!
In Australian culture, we are taught to believe that lying is bad and are always encouraged to tell the truth. In school, we are taught that lying is unacceptable and impermissible. From a very young age, there are extreme consequences of lying, but when are there events in life where lying is the right thing to do?
It's a slippery slope, but we have to become comfortable with the fact that lying isn't always bad and it can be very helpful in some situations.
A couple of years ago, one of my friends was retelling a story to our other friends about how many tickets we won at bowling. She said we won 100 when we only won 80, just to make the story funnier and seem more extreme. It was a minor difference, but I never really trusted that friend the same again. This kind of lying is unnecessary lying and not a good habit to get into. It is just not acceptable, but when is it?
The relationship between parents and children is a key example of this issue. Parents encourage their children to tell the truth but they do not reciprocate.
As a parent we want our children to be honest, but is there a time when you can be too honest? For example, you and your child are walking down the street and you see a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk. Your child, because they are taught to always be honest, openly says 'Eww, he smells' and pinches her nose in disgust. This is not the way we should be treating people but how would the child know not to say these horrible things, as it is all they know and all they have been taught? In this case, small white lies are told to save people's feelings, which should be taught to be acceptable in society. Imagine if everyone was that honest, and told people exactly what they were thinking, all of the time! So many disputes would come about, and our society as we know it would never be the same.
Parents also may have good reasons for not telling their child exactly what's going on. Imagine back when you were a 4 year old, and you were rescued from a horrific plane crash. You are hurt and in a very weakened state. You ask your mum about your siblings and your dad and ask if they are ok. She says they are ok and intends to tell you the truth once you are stronger. Imagine your mum telling you, right at that moment, that your dad and siblings have died. Lying there, weak and broken and she was completely honest with you and told you exactly what was going on. That is cruel. Situations like these may not call for a full level of truth and that is ok.
There are other situations in life, in which we do not feel that it is possible to tell the truth. Cases such as we don’t trust the person who was asking, or we do not feel comfortable in our setting or we do not know how the person asking will take an honest response. These are all valid reasons for not being 100% truthful. Say someone broke into your house and you have a family safe with all of your personal and most sacred belongings in it. They ask you what the code is. Do you tell them the code and watch them take everything you have worked for, or do you 'lie' and say you don’t know how to get into it? I know what I would do.
In Australia, we always associate lying with being a horrible thing that should never be done, but in reality, lying is the only thing keeping our society from falling apart. So yes, some lying is bad and should not be tolerated but sometimes, a little white lie could save a lot of grief and pain. Thank you.
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