My next step would have been snopes or to ask everyone here

[Michael]

Today I happened to overhear two boys whom I don't know, about eleven years old, chatting. One said, "You know, if a woman who's pregnant doesn't chew her food right, she can kill her baby! Know why? 'Cuz the food can get stuck in the umbilical cord and then the baby starves!"

There was a little pause while his friend (and I) digested this information. Then the boy added: "Know what? I just lied!"

Had to share it with y'all.

[AZCEP]

If he hadn't said he lied, would have you set him straight?

[hammerpcp]

It's okay to be dishonest if you are honest about it.

[Michael]

If he hadn't said he lied, would have you set him straight?

Good question! I probably should, and I probably wouldn't have. I try not to answer questions that haven't been asked. Although I know we have a special obligation to kids, I'm not adept enough to have intervened tactfully, without offending. They were strangers, after all. Don't know how I'd have handled "I wasn't talkn' to you, Mister." I like to build trust before intruding, and I don't know if there's a Good Samaritan law for social malpractice!

[TTLWHKR]

Can you imagine where he heard that from? Probably some undereducated parent.

[emt-b_wa]

Oh boy that's a new one. You almost fell like slapping whoever told him that

[Michael]

Can you imagine where he heard that from? Probably some undereducated parent.

My take was just that his 11-year-old's imagination had been exploring his powers of invention, and that he knew from the outset it was a fantasy. Also that he was exploring his powers of persuasion, his friend's gullibility, and maybe the degree of his own subsequent credibility. A fifth-grader's cosmos is pregnant with possibilities, and what's he's nourishing within him can survive great boluses of under-chewed imagery.