Julie Jay: Teaching your little ones the delicate dance between being truthful and being popular

When it comes to keeping friends and not making enemies I have to remind my four-year-old that it is a delicate dance between being truthful and being popular.

My four-year-old’s penchant for reporting back extends to his childminder, where he is fast earning a reputation as the man most likely to spill the truth in the event of a serious incident, such as somebody falling over or slides being hijacked. Picture: iStock.

I think it’s safe to say that stamping out corruption is only a good thing. That is, of course, until I stop benefiting from said corruption. 

I am thinking specifically of a wonderful moment in time, a couple of decades ago, when penalty points could be cancelled for myriad Irish reasons: you went to a debs with a guard’s brother, you gave another guard’s daughter Leaving Cert grinds, you once winked at a guard in the street.