I was trying to help my 5 year old son understand the difference between a secret and a surprise.
We always taught him that we don’t keep secrets, mostly to try to keep him from lying to us, but also to protect him in general.
But when saying we need to not tell mummy about a surprise we are planning he tells me we don’t keep secrets. And this is what i came up with to help him understand the difference.
Secrets are kept and hidden from someone. whereas a surprise is held to be given to someone.
Oh I love this distinction. I’ve always taught my kid that grown ups should never ask them to keep a secret, (specifically grown ups because part of growing up is having harmless secrets between friends and I didn’t want them to have a complex about that, but at the same time I think it’s important to teach what’s appropriate at a young age for their protection) but I always struggled with how to distinguish a good secret (like a surprise) from a ‘bad’ secret without making things confusing. This sums it up perfectly!