Confession time: What’s your most used little white lie?
Oh yeah. Come on. You can tell me!
You know you tell ’em.
What are they exactly? According to Free Dictionary:
A minor or unimportant lie, esp one uttered in the interests of tact or politeness.
An often trivial, diplomatic or well-intentioned untruth.
You know … like when you say, “Oh, yeah, that color looks great on you.”
Or
“Sure! Yellow Polka Dot bikinis on a pregnant belly are sexy, honey!”
Are you laughing yet? Blushing? Have you told one of these little well-intentioned, untruths?
Surely not!
Liar!
We hide behind those little ideas and remarks because they help us get through the day. Or through our lives without adding more stress than we already have to deal with.
How about that you’re still 29 when you’ve very clearly over thirty?
How about the one you tell your kids … ‘no, children, I never drank a drop of alcohol before I was 21, just like the law says’. ::wink wink::
Or, ‘these jeans shrunk in the wash!’ (okay, maybe that one’s mine)
We use little white lies to justify our actions, sometimes our failures and even our successes. Little white lies keep our friends friends and our family family.
In the book Little White Lies, Charley justifies giving Wyatt up three times in her own way. What happens is a series, a string of ‘lies’ though, is that they all pile up. And then they come crashing down like a box of too-tall stacked cans at the supermarket.
“No! I swear, I didn’t touch those!” as your finger throbs from the slice of one rim across the pad.
Sometimes, though, those ‘little white lies’ are very useful in extracting the truth out of someone or convincing them they should, in fact, believe you. Take a kid for example.
Mine always ask me if Grandma made me do ‘x’ when I make them do ‘x’ to be sure I’m not torturing them with anything Grandma wouldn’t have tortured me with. Confused?
Kid: Did Grandma make you eat peas, Mom?
Mom: Yes, absolutely.
Or
Kid: Did Grandma make you take a bath when you rolled in the grass and got all itchy, Mom?”
Mom: Yes, absolutely.
Did she? Probably. I don’t remember. But it works!
We all do it.
And getting those little white lies off our chests is sometimes quite cathartic. So now is your chance. Post anonymously … or not. Either way, let’s hear those little white lies you’ve been keeping to yourself.
Come on.
Spill it.
We want to hear.
Go ahead.
I dare ya.
—–
Aimee Laine is the author of Little White Lies, a paranormal romance.
For Charley Randall, time is her greatest enemy. Wyatt Moreland’s love is her ultimate reward.
Buy it at your local bookstore | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | AllRomance | BooksOnBoard
I make a point not to tell lies given the compounding effect and the fact that I don’t have the mental fortitude to keep up with them. As such this gets me in a lot more trouble then if I actually told little white lies.
“Which dress should I wear?” Josh’s lovely beautiful wife says. He knows she’ll pick what she wants and truly wants affirmation of her choice.
Her abundantly stupid husband replies: “I don’t care, you look good in both”
Her husband knows immediately that this was the incorrect response by the cold silence that fills the air between them. He decides to look up from the email he was reading and views the choices presented to him.
“I like the the one with the red trim” he proclaims, hoping this was the correct choice.
“I was thinking of the green.” she answers.
He returns to his email knowing that he has failed. “I should have lied” he tells himself. “I should have told her we need to go shopping for a new dress.”
🙂
YOU’VE LEARNED THE TRICK! YEAH! 🙂 🙂 🙂 LOL Sorry, that was deserved to be in all caps! Now you know the right answer and no more little white lies are ever needed. 😉
“Yes, dear, of course you must be married before you can have children,” she says to her nine year old daughter.
One year later when the questions started due to friends in single parent families:
“Yes, dear, the law has shifted and you no longer have to be married to have children–however, it is illegal to have children before the age of twenty sex.”
One year later …. I’ll deal with that when it gets here.
Dude! Only twenty six? I say thirty. 😉 🙂
Mine’s a more realistic lie. 😉
Damn, should say twenty six, not twenty sex ::shakes head:: Should really proofread before I hit submit, eh?
“I’m fine.” or “It doesn’t matter.” Of course, use the wrong tone and the jig is up.
Common courtesy and manners pretty much are always white lies. We all really want that last slice of pie, but courtesy makes us offer it to others first and pretend we don’t want it.
@Cat … those are ‘great’ little white lies. 🙂 I think I’ve used ‘I’m fine’ a gazillion times! 🙂