My personal opinion is you should always be honest and never lie, especially to your kids.
A practical consequence of lying is if/when the truth comes out Dirk's kids may have less trust in him vs. his wife. I don't know if honesty is one of his virtues? It's one I try to instill in my kids. Being an honest isn't always easy. E.g., Thu/Fri I'm taking my kids out of school for a vacation and that's not an excused absence. I could've called them in "sick". Instead, I called the school's VP to tell him about the trip and he approved it. I then helped my D e-mail each of her teachers.
