The difference between a lie and storytelling

Last year, we went through a horrible time when Jayden was telling elaborate stories at school.

We had just gone to the Ripley’s Aquarium for Ty’s birthday and bought Jayden an adorable stuffed stingray named “Ray” (cute, huh?). Against my better judgment, I decided to let him take “Ray” to school the next day to show his teacher. He was having such an awful time at school, I thought this might be something positive in the classroom for a change.

Later that day, I got a call from the teacher. She explained that Jayden had been asked to show his new “friend” to the class and proceeded to tell an elaborate tale. He told the class that he had jumped into the stingray tank and rescued the sick stingray from his impending death. Bringing it to the surface, he nursed it back to health and it had survived. Ripley’s was so grateful that they allowed the “real” stingray to come home to live with Jayden.

“Then why is it so still?” asked his buddy.
“He’s still very sick and is quite nervous around crowds.” Jayden replied without skipping a beat.

Apparently, Jayden had the class on the edge of their carpeted seats with his amazingly creative story. They really believed every word he said. When the teacher tried to get him to tell his classmates that this was a made-up tale, Jayden stuck to his rendition and confirmed that this had really happened.

With a deep sigh, I apologized for Jayden’s distraction in class and asked her what she thought we should do. We both agreed that while we needed to encourage Jayden’s imagination and creativity, we had to make sure that he was telling his friends that these were just make believe. The next day, Jayden was asked to tell his friends the truth, that Ray was actually not real and that we had bought him in the overpriced gift store.

So, was this a lie? Was it storytelling? It took us a month or two to really effectively explain the difference to Jayden without squashing his creativity.

One thing I know for sure, is that I LOVE shows and movies about the thin line between the truth and a lie. I’ve binge-watched The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt who tells many of her new “friends” that she’s actually Kimmy “Smith” to avoid sharing the deep, dark secrets of the Mole Women.

I also started watching Bloodline, another Netflix exclusive, and I’m desperate to see what the big family secret is all about. The Rayburn family have some dark secrets that they’re willing to do anything to keep from coming out — lying included. Since it stars an actor from my other Netflix fave, Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights), I cannot tell a lie…this needs to be your next binge series!

Disclosure: Yay! I am part of the Netflix Canada stream team (#StreamTeam) and have received product and a subscription in exchange for writing monthly posts. Already a huge Netflix fan, this is a pretty sweet deal!