How to get your kid stop lying you

Raising your children to be honest and responsible adults begins at a very early age. Children often pick up lying fast and they understand its value in getting out of trouble. Once you teach your child how to be honest with you, you will see dramatic change in both behavior and attitude. 

How to spot a lie

Children are not particularly difficult to read, although they can outwit you if you are not careful. Always look your kid in the eyes – this by itself will produce fantastic results. Children are born that way, and almost any intimidation tactics will work as long as you don’t go overboard. Sadly, this is the only way you can really know what your child is thinking. But you never know how good of an actor your flesh and blood really is; little girls for example are much more likely to hide their guilty conscious behind smiles and running to daddy. Boys on the other hand will avoid their father in favor of the gentler parental figure.

Tell your child not to lie.

It is difficult to explain the concept of lying and its repercussions to a young and still developing person, but introducing the subject in a friendly yet affirming matter will give the child some basic understanding; how lying is wrong, and that when you do something wrong you must always tell the truth etc. Don’t worry about if your kid gets the whole message at first; you will learn that taking care of a child involves having patience and sting personal relationship with your kid.

Positive Reinforcement is the key

Don’t be mad at your child for lying to you. The average adult lies more in a week, than a child does in a month. So don’t be a hypocrite and treat your child with respect and dignity. Guilt is a wonderful tool, but if you abuse its power for too long, you can actually hurt your child’s self-esteem. Let’s say you kid broke something important to you, or of great value like your laptop or television set. You know that *he did it (sorry, but boys are much more prone to committing crimes of this nature) and you are just getting your adrenaline under control. Don’t yell or be rude or mean to your kid, just sent him to his room to think about what he did for a while. Go talk to him and explain why the thing he did was wrong and why shouldn’t a real man lie about things like that. If your child sees that no punishment will come after that big accident, he will be much more comfortable telling you things like this later, and even when he is a teenager. 

Don’t lie to your child

The best way to make your child stop lying to you, is to lead by an example. If you are honest with your children you will see that they will pick up on that behavior and not before long they will stop lying completely. Sometimes little white lies can seem harmless and fun, but you can never know how your child would react to a situation which you disregard as ‘normal’. For example the “Santa” myth is great for little children; presents, North Pole etc. etc. But this is in fact a lie.

AuthorBio: Paula likes to write on parenting related topics. A while ago she founded http://www.cleancarpetlondon.com/ and that really helped her self improvement.

 Image:  andertoons on flickr