Little White Lies

My Girl: Mummy, can you play the train set with us?

MG: *absent mindedly* Hmmmm? Ah Ok.

My Girl: Mummy can you play with us now?

MG: No, no. I'm busy now. Later.

My Girl: Afterwards?

MG: Yes, yes.

My Girl: Later is afterwards?

MG: Yes, yes. Afterwards.


Later.........

MG: Come on children. Its time to brush your teeth and change into your pyjamas.

My Girl: Mummy, I want to play. You said you will play with us....

MG: Uhh... its late now. Its time to sleep. We'll play tomorrow.


Tomorrow.........

The process repeats itself for different requests to play different toys or read different books.

Aahhhhhh I feel so guilty! I wonder if any other mum out there is guilty of this or is it just me? I feel like I'm giving such a bad example to my kids. I try to fulfill my promises but quite often the scenario above happens. What am I teaching my kids? That its okay to say something and not mean it? Help! I must overcome this bad habit! Can anyone tell me how to handle this? I feel bad when I tell them "Go and play by yourself for a while, mummy is busy." but telling them "I'll play with you afterwards." but not being able to do so doesn't seem right either. Sigh!