Is honesty always the best policy?

As a parent, I frequently find myself beseeching my children to be honest, but this is undeniably something that they still really struggle with. Despite my best efforts to reassure them that an honest account of what has taken place (rather than an elaborately woven web of deceit) is less likely to incur my wrath, limited progress has been made to date. In reality, they’ve simply transitioned from blatant ‘skin-saving’ lies, to an abject evasion of the facts!

Progress in the loosest possible sense then…

But as much as I wallow in feelings of inadequacy (and torment myself with the notion that I have obviously failed to earn their trust) I have seen ‘honesty’ from the other side too – and it does have its drawbacks.   

I had just started teaching, and so I was undoubtedly at the driven (i.e. utterly uncompromising) stage. Things were very much ‘black or white’ and (not yet having had to juggle kids, work, marriage etc) I expected 100% commitment from my pupils – and their parents!

The first concert of the academic year was looming, and all three choirs were to be involved. I had sent out letters (outlining the arrangements) and painstakingly worked out the seating positions for all concerned. Mindful of the fact that young children often require quite a lot of input (in terms of stage management), I had largely used the final rehearsal to (rather laboriously) practise filing on and off the ‘stage’ – to the point where even the most ‘distracted’ of characters knew exactly what was expected of them.

Having dismissed the children, I was just packing everything away when one little boy came hurtling back into the chapel, looking extremely agitated. (Such was the keenness of his discomfort, that I dispensed with the usual teacherly chastisements about running and / or remembering that we were in a place of worship!) Once he had caught his breath, he told me that he wouldn’t be able to make the concert, because his Mum had said that she wouldn’t be able to get him back to school in time. Well, to say that I was unimpressed would have been an understatement. All parents had had plenty of notice, after all, and what could be more pressing than hearing one’s son performing with his friends?

I fixed him with a Paddington-like stare and asked (rather acerbically) what his Mum would be doing instead. He promptly informed me that she was booked in to “have her bikini line waxed – at 4pm” and that he was “sorry“. Rather churlishly, and despite being momentarily wrong-footed, I grumbled that his Mum had chosen an unfortunate time to have this done. Not content to stop there, I also took it upon myself to point out that the concert didn’t start until 5.30pm and so it might still be possible for him to take part.

His response was priceless.

He looked at me (rather incredulously) and said, “Have you seen my Mum, Miss? It won’t be a quick thing. She’s got more hair than a Yak!”

I rest my case!