A Lie Agreed Upon (I Hope)

Is it morally reprehensible to lie to your child? I don’t mean fun lies like the Great Santa Scam, I mean the little lies that make a parent’s life easier. I am talking about the lies that grease the wheels of progress and move the day along. Is that good parenting or is it hijacking your moral compass in the name of selfishness?
  Last week, the gang and I went to the mall in search of a plush Mickey Mouse, (See previous post for more on Tiernan’s obsession with the Mouse.)and I pulled off a minor miracle and told a bold faced lie to my son. It was an absolute fabrication and I repeated it two or three times.
  I will elaborate on the lie in moment, but first some background. Prior to discovering America’s 78-year-old icon of rodent wholesomeness, Tiernan was obsessing on England’s 62-year-old icon of utility, everybody’s favorite “really useful engine” Thomas the Tank Engine.
  Mickey, being almost 20 years older, is a little savvier and has had a store devoted exclusively to all things mousey for a number of years. Thomas just recently marketing and promotion superhighway with the opening of Thomas World, almost directly across the mall from the Disney Store. Prior to succumbing to the charms of the world’s best known rodent, the boy only cared about visiting the Thomas store.
  Oh, the Thomas store, a.k.a. Thomas World, it is the shell of an old Motherhood Maternity store that has been stocked with all things Thomas, from maps of the Island of Sodor to toy trains, from both the die-cast and wooden (more expensive) sets, to clothing and other various and sundry items, like stickers, toothbrushes, watches, pens, night lights, beds, bedding, etc. You get the picture, if it has a Thomas the Tank Engine license it can be found in this store.
   The peseta résistance is the Official Thomas the Tank Engine Playtable, which is stocked with just enough loose wooden trains to create an environment ripe for various displays of toddler jealousy, including; the “mine” syndrome, the “you play over there with the broken tanker car, you are too young to play with Thomas” syndrome, and my personal favorite; the “Sir Topham Hat syndrome,” in which one child decides that he or she is in charge of who can play at the table and what child can touch what train. All of which is just layers in the crescendo that builds to an “I don’t want to go” tantrum, which can lead to the bribing technique in which is child is bribed with a purchase of some sort of Thomas propaganda, i.e. a new train, a bed etc. (Never in my case however, but I’ve heard tale of such occurrences.)
  Since Thomas World is like a black hole in space, sucking in unsuspected parents and their toddlers often not releasing them until a cash sacrifice has been offered. I call that the Sodor Sacrifice.  That sort of meltdown inducing, parent manipulating experience has a way of embedding in the memory of every toddler who visits and, as such, avoiding Thomas World is something deeply desired by parents. It is the kind of place not spoken of, as in “Let’s try to avoid the T-H-O-M-A-S store if possible,” because like Saruon, the mere invocation of the name can change a toddler from a happy, proud and content kid, to screaming, begging, whining lump of tears and snots.
  The lie.
  We were walking through the mall and Tiernan’s Thomas train sense must have been dulled by an overdose of Mouse poison because I saw Thomas World before he did and I was able to distract his attention away from the fact that the store was to our right and break free of the gravitational pull and spirit him into the Disney Store. We made our Disney purchase and were about to leave and I once again managed to stay free of the Thomas World tractor beam and scurry past the store. As we got two feet past the Thomas store Tiernan said, “Go to Thomas store.”
 And I said, “Do you see it?”
 And he said, “no.”
 And I lied. “I don’t see it either.” And I told another lie, “Maybe it closed down.”
 Tiernan said, “Thomas store closed down”
 I said, “I haven’t seen it.” I had. I lied again and I kept lying, but I enjoyed my trip to the mall. I avoided the Thomas store tantrum and I avoid making the Sodor Sacrifice.
  But at what cost? Have I also sacrificed my morals? Has the Satan of Sodor managed to erode the bedrock of my principals just a little and won a significant battle? Please gentle reader, (And I know there is only one of you) please help me through my crisis of conscience. For I can not go back to the mall until I resolve this, I like the mall.