The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

I learned a little lesson tonight.  Children can't be trusted to tell the whole story. 

I was talking on the phone with my daughter, Elizabeth, who now lives in California, but a couple of years ago lived in St. Petersburg, Russia.  She was asking me about her cousin, Kevin, who is living in Mozambique where he is working with the Peace Corps (these world traveling kids!). She wanted to know the latest news from him.

I told Elizabeth that my sister (Kevin's mom) had told me that he had a friend coming to visit.  He was going to have to go to the city to pick her up and that would require a night in a hotel.  Since crime is so bad in the city, they were planning on putting a chair under the door knob for extra security. 

These words were no sooner out of my mouth when my daughter said "Kevin shouldn't tell his mom that kind of stuff."

"Oh," I said, "So what kind of things did you lie to me about when you were in Russia?"

"I didn't lie," she said. " If you had asked me if I was going to put a chair under the door knob for extra security,  I would have told you, 'Yes, I am!'"

The bottom line is, if you want the truth and nothing but the truth, you've got to know the right questions to ask.  Not all that reassuring, actually!