trustworthy

I have been talking to Madelyn a lot lately about being trustworthy. If she asks to do something like color with markers at her table on the carpet, I ask her if she is trustworthy. If I can trust her to not color on the carpet and only color on her paper.

At first when I would ask her, she would occasionally say no. Her responses have mostly been yes since she realized that gets her what she wants. The thing is, she is usually pretty trustworthy. So far (because I am sure at least some of it will happen at some point) she hasn't colored on anything other than what she is supposed to, run in to the street, cut with scissors or purposefully broken anything. However, she has started answering some of our questions with answers that are not always truthful. It's mostly her imagination, but we're working on it.

We talk about how being trustworthy means that you are going to do what you say you are going to do, you tell the truth and you follow the rules.

So today, when she wanted to draw on her easel just outside the door, I asked her if I could trust her to stay on the porch. Of course she said yes and she happily colored for nearly half an hour in that same position.

I pulled a chair to where she was in sight, grabbed a book and read as I watched her. She happily ran inside and said, "I'm 'trustworsty' mommy! I was right there!"