Pinocchio - When was the last time you told a lie?

Hubby and I worked real late today. And i ended up not seeing Xuan for an entire day (when I woke up he fell asleep, when I came home, he was asleep too!)

Luckily En and I went for our morning walk this morning. Hubby was not in the best of moods as he felt bothered by work.

We went for late night grocery shopping, and I wanted a MacD Sundae to complete my lousy day.
I bought the Shrek monster band too.. planning to let En wear it tomorrow as I heard my mum tell me his monster stories - refusing to share toys, snatching toys from his cousin, pushing Xuan away from my mum.. sigh all the notti stuff surfacing again...

And then Hubby and I had the most amazing conversation..
It all started when he said the following - outta nowhere as we stepped outta McD and I was gorging on my ice cream:

Hubby: Maybe I should start collecting Pinocchio from all over the world?
Me: ???????
*and in my mind, i went from why Pinocchio...* to
Me: What lesson did you learn from Pinocchio? to
Me: When was the last time you told a lie? * getting excited - wondering whether he will tell me the truth, hekkhek hek*
Hubby: *thinks for a moment and sheepishly shrugs* We tell many lies everyday.. at work.. (and something I cannot blog here for political reasons)
Me: Wah! actually so did I - I just lied to someone about having things lined up and not sure if I am available in Friday... but then it is not exactly a lie, cuz I do have things lined up.. not exactly a lie!

We are all such fine liers, we even lie to ourselves.. hahaha!
And we do it like we breathe, like we talk, like its a natural thing to do, without any guilt.

Maybe - just maybe - there are certain degree of lying versus truthfulness.
I.e. Maybe - if the truth of the lie does not have any consequences on others, it is not considered a lie.

Example: I lied that I ate chicken instead of fish to Hubby - but because that lie does not have any impact of both of us, it is not really considered a lie.

However, if I had been out with a man, but lied that I was actually with a gal, and the truth of this lie will have dire consequences if Hubby knows about it, then this is a real lie..

Agree?! We all never think of ourselves as great liers, but we so are!

Now, then how to tell our kids not to lie? I read that we ought to behave in the way we want our kids to behave.

Hence, that means Hubby and I have to stop lying, whether the truth of the lies have impact on others or not. Or else, we will not come across as very convincing role models for our boys...

But think about it - when is the LAT TIME YOU TOLD A LIE? NOT so long ago isn't it?
Tell me if you have not told a lie in the past 7 days.

____________________________________________
Recruitment screener for respondents who are truthful:

Q: When was the last time you told a lie?

- last hour - 1
- within the last 12 hours - 2
- within the last 24 hours - 3
- 3 days ago - 4
- More than one week ago - 5

Terminate all the Pinocchios coding 1-4! Recruit those non-Pinocchios who coded 5! :)