Why do toddlers lie?
Because they’re smart – according to the BBC.
“Toddlers who lie will do better”, is the BBC headline.
The gist of the article? In a toddler, lying is a sign of development and intelligence.
The director of the Institute of Child Study at Toronto University, Dr Kang Lee, said: “Parents should not be alarmed if their child tells a fib.
“Their children are not going to turn out to be pathological liars. Almost all children lie.
“It is a sign that they have reached a new developmental milestone.
“Those who have better cognitive development lie because they can cover up their tracks.”
Let’s put aside the old, dead “Correlation is not causation” horse for a second.
Theres a pervasive belief in our culture that Natural = Good. We see it on our supermarket shelves 
If it’s natural – if it’s the way things are without human interference – it must be good, no?
In this belief system, the fact that children lie – without being taught – as soon as they are smart enough to – isn’t seen as anything to worry about.
It’s something to celebrate – Hooray! You have a gifted child (congratulations!) who will make a heck of a banker someday!
And of course, in the Natural is Good scheme of things, the danger is not lying per se, but only pathological lying. There’s nothing wrong with it so long as you don’t do it too much. Don’t upset Nature’s balance. Because lying is natural, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it – it only becomes wrong when taken out of balance.
God says something different – one of the fundamental lessons Scripture says we learn by looking at the world around us is that things are not okay and that the current state of the world is that it is cursed, incomplete and dying.
Yes, being smarter allows you to be more devious. You don’t need a study to tell you that.
The real question is, “Why do we even know the concept of ‘devious’?”
There’s no study in the world that will ever tell you that. But there doesn’t need to be – because that question was fully answered a long, long time ago.
This was because they had developed the ability to carry out a complex juggling act which involves keeping the truth at the back of their brains.
He added: “They even make bankers in later life.”
Dr Kang tested the children’s honesty by telling them not to peek at a toy placed behind their backs while leaving the room.
He then monitored their reactions by video and returned to ask if they had turned around, checking their responses against the recording.
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Had you considered the similarity between lying and telling stories? Some children are not challenged by their parents when they start “telling stories” and perhaps thereby do not distinguish between “telling stories” and lying.
Pathological lying is another thing altogether. I asked my daughter who was involved with a pathological liar if the fellow really believed the lies he told. She replied that at the first telling he didn’t, but that he kept repeating the lie until the truth was lost to him. Interesting, eh?
That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought about “telling stories” in that light. Certainly stories can be told to either reinforce the truth or to mask it. Sometimes stories reveal the truth even if they are non-factual.
But that is very interesting, because the vast majority of the stories we read to our children – especially fairytales – are not true – they are fantastic. Even Dick and Jane don’t exist. Teletubbies are actors in suits. Sometimes we find true stories that are suitable for children, but more often than not we feed them pure (yet wholesome) fiction.
The kinds of things we imagine say a lot about us.
Of course, when our children “tell stories” they’re usually not being metaphorical.
There’s a part of truth that is more than our senses can ascertain – in no small part because often our senses are badly warped and subject to terrible interpretation. We see only in part; know only in part; are often blind to the greater spiritual truth of each and every situation. Truth, although by very nature factual, by very nature also extends beyond those facts that we are competent to record.
The facts we can observe are insufficient to tell ‘the whole truth’.
We all live with perceptions that bind us to a false, lesser reality. We’re all a little insane that way. A key question is whether or not we’re willing or wanting to embrace it. I guess we just have to throw ourselves at the grace of God.