April Fool’s Day

 I’ve never understood why people think it’s funny to play pranks on each other. I think it is an especially bad idea for parents to prank their children. I want my children to trust me. It seems to me that playing pranks on your children teaches them that you should not always be trusted and makes them subconsciously always wonder when you are telling the truth and when you are lying. 

I have, however, told all my children one lie when they were little. During a very scary thunderstorm, I would tell them not to be afraid of the loud thunder. It is just the noise of the clouds bumping into each other. I would explain to them that the normal white puffy clouds (like cotton balls) don’t make any noise when the wind blows and they bump into each other, but when they get dark, heavy, and really full of rain they make this loud crashing noise when the wind blows them into each other until they can rain out all of the extra water. When they learned the truth about thunder in school they would try to correct me as I was telling their younger sibling the same story. I would tell them, “Yes, but don’t tell your sister/brother. We don’t want her/him to be afraid.” They would get this epiphany and say, “Ooooh,” then walk away feeling special because they knew something their younger sibling didn’t, and it was a secret that they shared with their mom.