Truth Prevails

X has a classmate, Y, who is a compulsive liar. It doesn't help that X is a compulsive lie detector. He always come home to tell me what lies Y is telling him. He always try to test whether Y tells the truth or lies by asking questions relating to the subject in question.

Today, I met Y's mother for lunch. I was contemplating to tell her about Y's behaviour. As my son is the whistle-blower, I was reluctant to tell her because I don't want Y to treat my son untowardly when being scolded by his mother for being a liar. However, all situation has its own course.

I went to fetch X before meeting Y's mother for lunch. When we were having lunch and chatting, X blurted out that Y is a liar. He told Y's mother about the lies that Y tells. What is a normal mother's reaction? What is Y's mother's reaction?

To think that she didn't have a surprised reaction at all! And she had the cheek to tell my son that her son is very innocent. That's her exact word. INNOCENT! She told my son that children tend to brag especially when they are being together with friends and they start to compare things. The spirit of 'kiasuism' always exists, even among children.

Even though I agree with her that human are 'kiasu' in nature, shouldn't we as adult, at least try to educate our children not in order to continue running in the human materialism race? The reply and reaction of the mother make me wonder if the child's behaviour and habit were learnt from his parents, either consciously or sub-consciously.

As a mother who is trying hard to teach her children good value, I wonder if I should let X continue his friendship with Y. But then again, he couldn't avoid playing together with Y if there are classmates. And this is just a tip of the iceberg. As X grows up, he will find that there a lot of different types of people in this world. Guess what I can do is just to instill the basic value in X and W, also teach and guide them to choose their friends wisely.

Hope the boy will learn and grow well as they are more exposed to different type of social experiences with or without their parents in the years to come.