October 12, 2009Kid corner: the wise big brother deludes the ignorant youngster

Filed under: Kids by merylrunion |

Here’s another story from The Detective Mom. It’s hilarious and brilliant, but does raise some ethical questions.

Yesterday afternoon we got home from brunch and congregated in front of the TV to watch the Bengal’s game.

Well, everyone except for the youngest. The game held no interest for him, and he wanted to play Wii. He kept going over to the TV and trying to push the button that would switch the system off of cable and onto the Wii. My husband and I kept telling him no, pulling him back, and generally wishing he would find something else in the room to entertain him. But he would not be distracted.

Then my oldest went up to the TV. He has football for the Wii, which gave him an idea. He fiddled around with the game system, controllers, discs, and other buttons, and then handed his baby brother the controller.

“Here, play this game. It’s a really realistic version of football!”

Not that my youngest had any concept of what a “realistic version” is. But he fell for it, hook, line and sinker! For a few minutes he thought he was controlling the action on the screen, and his resistance to us watching the game stopped!

He never did figure out what the rest of us were hooting with laughter about!

The little tyke was happy, but it does raise the question about whether it’s acceptable to trick kids or not.What do you think?

I know several people who were more than a little angry when the truth about Santa was revealed. There is an ancient scripture that says “The wise should not delude the ignorant.” And yet in this case, the delusion is a joy for the little guy – it appears that ignorance is bliss for everyone here.