My friend and I took our 2 sons (aged 4 and 10 years) to a park for them to ride horses. We had agreed with the kids that after an hour’s riding we would leave. However after an hour the kids inevitably asked for an extension. That hour soon turned into two and a half. I was getting rather impatient so I told my 10 year old that it was time to go as I had other programmes. However to the 4 year old I stated that the horses also wanted to go and have fun. ”How do they have fun?” he asked. I replied that just like people horses also watched TV and little horses preferred cartoons. He was silent for an instant and I thought the issue was over, but………! ” You are such a liar arent you? Why don’t you simply say that you want to leave?” This from the 4 year old! Initially I was taken aback. I mean he said it in Shona, a language, spoken in my country. Now in Shona when you refer to some one you respect – parents, elders, bosses etc – you address him/her in plural even if s/he is alone, i.e there are 2 yous, for singular and plural. This kid used the singular version. Obviously to him a liar did not merit respect! The boy’s father was furious but I just laughed it off as it was no big deal really. My son, who was having problems controlling his mirth, also burst out and that somewhat mollified my friend. I later pondered on the kid’s acuity and wondered just how often we believe we make things understandable to our kids when in fact we complicate them.