Is it just me?

Am I the only person who thinks that 3 am is an unreasonable hour for a baby/toddler (young toddler? Older baby? Whatever) to be awake and playing with people? Is it perfectly sensible to find quiet games to play with the kid at that hour instead of putting her back to sleep? And when asked for quiet games, is it wrong to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the kid needs to sleep more than she needs to have fun? (Not to mention it can't be good for the parents to be up at all hours when they presumably do not have odd sleeping habits by nature.)

Because, frankly, I think the advice (politely stated at first... the person in question doesn't like me, and I feel no need to keep up the pretense) "PUT THE KID BACK TO BED" is eminently better than whatever That Twit was fishing for.

Yesterday, we found a butterfly.

Better than that, it was a dead butterfly, so we shook off the ants and carefully brought it to the museum, where we stuck it in an envelope to keep it safe until we got home. And I explained that we'd never touch a living butterfly, that might hurt it.

Seriously one of the coolest things to happen all year, isn't it?

So, playing link tag, another link on Radical Honesty (well, not really)

With thanks to elenbarathi, who of course thanked me for the original link!

When I posted the link, it was of course much past my bedtime, so I didn't leave any commentary. But I meant to get back to it, and here I am. elenbarathi said much of what I would have said, but I want to say some things in my own words anyway.

I don't endorse Radical Honesty as written up in the article, if for no other reason than that I think it's a lot more trouble than it's worth, even if you're really bad at lying.

But I also don't like the sort of social lying that's more or less expected in this society. It grates on my nerves, and also seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.

So for a while now, I've been trying to take a middle path - upfront and honest, but not gratuitously mean about it. (Like I say on my user info, sometimes I really am trying to offend, but usually it's a mistake, and I'll be perfectly honest if asked which it is.)

I think it's working well - I seem to have friends who care about me, and who don't really hate my guts but are too nice to say so. And, funnily enough, I find that after enough exposure to my ideas, they get a lot more honest, at least when with me! And I like myself, more or less. But... I don't know. I still like input.

So I'm asking you, nicely - how honest, exactly, is too honest? I mean, what circumstances exist that you think it's generally better to suck it up and say the scripted, socially approved lie? Or, alternatively, what circumstances demand telling an unpleasant, unsolicited truth (I'll try to always tell the truth when asked, so I do advise people never to ask for an opinion or some advice unless they really want it)?