One day several years ago, I was telling my adult children that I was unaware of them ever lying to me. I chuckled and said that if they did, I didn’t know about it. My oldest daughter became quite serious and said to me, “Dad, it’s not so much that we never lied to you, it’s more that you never gave us a reason to lie to you.”
From the time my four children were wee toddlers, I made it a habit to not discipline or punish them for accidents or mistakes. Often even mistakes in judgment. If my toddlers broke a glass I never raised my voice to them, rather I would run to them, pick them up and put them in a place of safety and clean up the broken shards of glass, at the same time telling them to let daddy help clean it up. I explained that if they tried to clean it up they could get hurt.
