When is a Lie Not Really a Lie?

I found myself pondering this very question at 9:30 this morning. See, my baby girl has been very sick and I had to give her some medicine. She was in her high chair, happy and babbling while grandma (my mother-in-law, who was in town visiting) fed her cereal and fruit. Like most infant medication, this was the kind you have to dispense using a syringe, squirting it into the baby's mouth.

I was cooing at my baby, coaxing her to take the medicine. We were down to the last few drops, and I said, "Come on, sweetie. Last one." Of course, just as I started squirting the medicine, she batted the syringe away, letting out a merry little laugh. So, I tickled her chin a little, and said again, "Come on, sweetie. Last one." And she took it. Yay!

But as she was grimacing, swallowing it down, my mother-in-law said, "Oh! Your mommy is a liar. She said that the first time and it was a lie."

Now, of course she said this with a smile on her face and a light tone, but I still bristled. I am not a liar. Right? That wasn't a lie! Well, maybe it kind of was, but only by accident. So, it was less than a lie. A little white lie? No, smaller. Maybe a fib. Nope. Still smaller. A fiblet.

It was a slight miscalculation on my part. The first time around, I thought it was the last dose! I didn't purposely tell a fiblet. And that, I think, is the difference.

Lies are told on purpose, sometimes with malice and forethought, sometimes not, but the end result is still the same. The person being blatantly lied to ends up hurt. And isn't it funny how liars always have justification for the lies they tell? It's really quite comical. I believe that when people lie, it's because they're boring, scared people, who are trying to make up for their own inadequacies as human beings. By lying, they stroke their own egos so they can feel bigger and better than they really are.

So, I am not a liar. Yes, I am a fibleter, and I will probably end up telling more fiblets to my daughter as she continues to grow.

If you notice, though, at no time did I tell her, "Come on, sweetie. Last one. I promise."

I might be a fibleter, but I'm no promise-breaker. That's a story for another time...