Kids can be really honest. Too honest sometimes. They don't know yet that there is a time when it is a social imperative to lie, like when the truth can hurt someone's feelings.

On Christmas morning my kids were ripping into their presents like a predator feasts on prey. Among the gifts we gave our 4 year-old, Esia, was a couple of shirts. Upon realizing they were clothing items and not miniature farm implements he was not pleased.

"That's disgusting!" he yelled as he punched the box away.

His reaction is on par with my internal feeling when I get a gift I don't want but I know not to make the giver feel bad so I smile and say things like "That's awesome! Thank you! It's just what I wanted."

Maybe the lie isn't even believable. Is it really that plausible that I wanted underwear and a Green Bay Packers hat? (I'm a Vikings fan, Skol!) But I do it nonetheless. My son just let his feelings be known, which was not shocking to my wife and I.

It was one of those thing where if it had happened with the gift he got from Grandma we would have scolded him. A happy Christmas morning wasn't worth giving up over a battle of manners with us. Luckily our 6 year-old was happy to take the shirts off his hands, until he saw that one of the shirts had a video game controller on it. Then he thought it was pretty cool.

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