Tag Archives: honesty

Oops! A Checkout Error Scored My Friend Two Free Dresses!

Amelia McDonell-ParrySeptember 24, 2012 //
Shopping Ban
This writer banned herself from buying -- and it backfired. Read More »

This weekend, I went shopping with a friend of mine, doing what I do best, i.e. encouraging her to buy everything she looked cute in (and vice versa, although I didn’t look cute in anything, SAD FACE). “You’re so bad to shop with!” she exclaimed, holding a pile of clothes as we waited in line at the register. “I’m spending so much money…”

When it was her turn at the register, we stood there chatting as the salesperson rang up all her items and bagged them. She announced the total and my friend paused our conversation to hand over her credit card. We made eye contact as she signed her receipt, and I could tell both of us were thinking the same thing. When we got out of the store and had safely turned the corner, we both stopped in our tracks.

“Wait, wait, wait, how was your total that little?” I asked frantically. “It should have been twice that!” Keep reading »

Guy Talk: Learning To Be A Husband, Not A Son

Hugo SchwyzerSeptember 6, 2011 //

Not so long ago, my wife and I were talking to a recently-divorced friend of ours. She’s younger than we are, in her early thirties, and as far as she’s concerned, she’s never tying the knot again. Not because of an objection to the institution, but because she’s convinced that most men marry for one reason: they want to be taken care of emotionally.

“I got tired of thinking about someone else’s needs all the time,” our friend said. “I’m prepared to take care of a baby. But I don’t want my first-born to be my second child.” When she heard that, my wife turned to me and gave me a grin. She knows my history.

In three previous marriages and a handful of other long-term relationships (I haven’t been single for long since I was 16), I found myself—like so many men—taking on the parts of the “naughty boy” and the “helpless child.” Time and again, I turned wives and girlfriends into mother-figures, and the result was inevitably disastrous. Keep reading »

15 Times You Should Always Tell The Truth

Wendy AtterberryJuly 7, 2010 //

Today is Tell The Truth Day and while we’ve covered — exhaustively, some might say — the top lies women tell men, men tell women, and we tell ourselves and our friends, there are certainly occasions when honesty truly is the best policy. After the jump, 15 times you should always tell the truth (to yourself or someone else). Keep reading »

Girl Talk: Honesty — Did I Do It Wrong?

Amelia McDonell-ParryJune 2, 2010 //

I consider myself to be a pretty honest person, save the occasional white lie — “Oh yeah, I’ve read War & Peace. Thought-provoking!” However, I think telling the truth is not always easy and it doesn’t necessarily work out how you’d like it to. The goal of telling the truth shouldn’t be about relieving a guilty conscience; if being honest is going to have massive repercussions, it’s important for the truth-teller to really consider its worth; other people’s truths should be theirs to tell, unless the emotional cost to the one being lied to is that grave. Ultimately, though, I think we all decide when to be honest based on whether we would want to hear the truth ourselves. Is it a foolproof decision-making method? Definitely not, but sometimes it’s all we’ve got. Keep reading »

Dear Wendy: “Should I Confess I Slept With My New Friend’s Guy?”

Wendy AtterberryMay 17, 2010 //

About a month ago, I had a one-night-stand with a guy I met through some friends. Soon after, I found out that he was actually casually dating a girl I met recently through some other mutual friends. I was interested in this dude following our one-night-stand but after finding out about him and this other girl, I backed off and just decided to stay out of it. Since then, I’ve met the girl a second time and we ended up talking and hitting it off. I’m 30 and most of my friends are married and coupled up and it would be really nice to have a new single friend to hang out with — especially one I seem to have so much in common with (uh, maybe too much). Well, it turns out she has seriously strong feelings for this dude we’ve both hooked up with. From what I understand, it sounds like theirs is just a booty call/hookup situation, but she would like it to be more. Of course, I haven’t told her that I slept with him, but I felt really bad and awkward about it all. She keeps saying we should meet up for drinks and I really want to, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable withholding the truth as she frets out loud about why they’re not getting more serious, why he doesn’t call her for actual dates, etc. I don’t want her to find out eventually and be angry and hurt that I kept what I knew to myself while she went on and on about him. Do I tell her what happened between me and this dude? Keep it to myself and pray she doesn’t find out? Or avoid a friendship with her altogether even though I would really like one? — Stuck

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Guy Lied To Girlfriend About Graduating From College

Jessica WakemanJuly 10, 2009 //

You know how sometimes little white lies snowball out of control? It’s usually when you say something dumb, like, “Oh, yeah, I watch “Gossip Girl.”" Then the girl who sits next to you at work gives a play-by-play of each outfit the characters’ wore every Tuesday morning and you just smile politely.

But one man wrote into “Dear Prudence,” the advice columnist for Slate, to confess he’s been lying to his girlfriend about something for four years: that he has an engineering degree.

Keep reading »

Relationship Novice: Sexual History 101

Lindsay A.February 15, 2008 //

Revealing the number of people you’ve fooled around with is a lot like calling your grandmother. It’s one of those things you feel like you should do, but you really don’t want to. Why? Because you know you’re going to have a loooooong, drawn out conversation that essentially makes you feel uncomfortable. Sorry, Grams, but it’s true.

While you might lie to your grandmother about that time you jumped on top of the bar and took your shirt off, lying to your new boyfriend about your “free and easy” stage is a stickier subject. So what DO you tell him? And when? Keep reading »