The Noble Lie....And when to use it.

In Plato's 'The Republic', a noble lie, is lie knowingly told by an elite, to maintain social harmony.

Parents are, by default - 'the elite'.
In the eyes of their children, at least.

To the young child, they are the all powerful, all knowing, benevolent authority.

Parents tell versions of 'noble lie's' all the time to their children - and rightly so, if it is done with pure intent and, in the estimation of the parents, the results are beneficial to the child.
'Eat yer carrots, and you wont go blind', that kinda thing.
(it may not always be the case of course - far from it in fact - but that is not a discussion for this post).

Is a lie by omission, a noble lie?
'...I didn’t lie; I just didn’t tell you...'.
A lie by omission - When important information is not told as part of a story.
Failings to correct factual errors (in order to hide a truth) is also a lie by omission.

My point is that somethings are best not discussed with children.
Like if you're trying to get them off the dopamine factory of playing computer games, to do table top war games.

You don't tell them ' this will enhance your character', or 'build great skills for life in adulthood', or 'it might ignite a creative spark in you that could lead anywhere', or 'it might send you down the rabbit holes of learning all about history and feed your brain', or..you get the point.

You don't TELL them these things, these are things known to you.
You tell them 'lets have a fun campaign, you can be General Mayhem, and I'll be Major Chaos. ...Here I made a map earlier, lets see what you can do. You have 34 units of infantry, cavalry and artillery, I only have 25, so you're invading me, the country of Libtardia. And hen we touch pieces on the map, we then play the battle out on a war game board, and I'm gonna whip your ass, soldier !'

You get the idea.
FUN.

So instead of a night sat down in front of a screen, you can have hours of fun letting your imaginations run wild, connecting with each other, talking, educating while playing...
(as opposed to both staring zombie like at a screen, dopamine addled, like a heroin addict waiting for their next fix.)

Again, I'm sure you get the idea.

You (the parent) might not even be that bothered about the war game, but muster up the enthusiasm for it, knowing how beneficial the skills learned are uber beneficial to your kid .
This is called being an adult.
A good parent.

So fuck the lazy ass route , the easy route...
YOUR preferences are always secondary to your children's future.
Always.

Get weaving, put in the effort, get war gaming, get educating, get connecting...
Oh, and have an improved relationship with yer kids.

Take the hit - tell the noble lie.
Take responsibility.

The butterfly effect.

Chaos theory - 'the butterfly effect' is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, in which a small change in one state can result in large differences in a later state.

They may love war gaming- they may not like it at all - but at least give them the opportunity to discover a whole new world of imagination, creativity, exploration, and character building skills...

Anecdotal story.
Many years ago, I convinced a father to try out a wargame with his sone (he was 12 or 13 at the time).
The father wasn't into it at all, but he persevered for a few games/battles (it bored him silly..lol).

The kid (who I knew and saw 'a spark' in him) loved it.
He went on to do some great, great things (and still is as far as I know).
he told his dad many years later, that one of the reason his life took the direction it did - was down to war gaming when he was younger, and the spark that it ignited in him - the passion of historical research.

The butterfly effect...

...or is that 'the angel effect'?...lol