“Now begins a torrent of words and a trickling of sense.”
Theocritus of Chios (310 BC – 250 BC)

Children will believe anything you tell them. Whether it is a old man in a red suit flown by reindeer, or a fairy who exchanges decayed teeth for liquid assets, a simple story told by a adult will result in the story being true to life. As they get older however the stories have to be based on evidence or fact before they are believed.  Which is why it is key to manipulate and deceive your children before they figure it all out.! Some may gasp at the thought of behavior like this, but then again they are the ones who are probably fooled by certain media types on a daily basis.
It is no surprise to anyone who knows me well… I absolutely love to torture my girls. They are at a key age where anything I say is believed and anything I do is perfect. Why not take advantage of this for my own amusement?
When one of them comes up to me with a “boo-boo” on their finger I usually pretend to ponder the issue and then say I have a solution. I whip out my pocket knife and tell them if I cut the finger off then the boo-boo will go away. Suddenly their priorities have changed and they no longer care about the sore finger and are laughing as I chase them around the house. (note: this is not effective if your child actually has a serious injury… at least not for long anyway)
Today on Cosey’s birthday we let her open her presents just after lunch. The first gift was a new Barbie Digital Camera, which I am sure will add to future contributions to our series. The second gift was a Barbie Birthday-Girl Doll, which will add to her collection of 4 million dolls and give stock owners of Mattel more security in their investments. Pushing those gifts aside, Cosey ripped into her final wrapped gift… a Princess Bicycle helmet with knee and elbow pads.

Although she still had a smile on her face, you could tell she was confused by the final gift. It was not like she had fallen off her tricycle ever. Terrie and I acted excited and told her to put them on and we would go outside to ride with them. I could sense a slight disappointment in her attitude, but she was a trooper and kept that smile on her face. I couldn’t help but notice that she had probably expected a little more for her birthday or maybe even a gift from the 92 suggestions she had mentioned this month alone.

We let her ride up and down the sidewalk in the back yard a few times before I asked her what she thought about the safety gear. She said they were “nice” .. and thanked us for the gift.. still there was that slight disppointed attitude in her voice. I could not hold out any longer without feeling guilty. “Cosey”, I said, “you know what would even be better than riding your tricycle?”.  “What?”, she responded. I pointed  to the new Princess bike in the corner of the yard which she had passed unwittingly three times during her tricycle ride.
That one second of joy on my child’s face was worth every penny. Her eyes doubled in size and she almost fell off the tricycle. (at least she was wearing protective gear).  Although it was more trickery than deception, it was still dang enjoyable for us as parents and it made the even better as a whole. Of course this gullibility will not last forever but we will take advantage of it while we can.

“There is nothing better than birthday cake. It’s like a slice of concentrated love with buttercream frosting. ”
Takayuki Ikkaku,  Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005