Steps to Dealing with Lying Children
Are you facing problem with a lying child? I read an article about how to deal with lying children:
Seven Quick Steps to Dealing with a Lie
Discovering your child has lied can be quite distressing. Lies are often an additional layer of misbehavior (the child misbehaves, and then lies about it) and it’s this layer that often makes parents go ballistic. (“I’m furious that you stole my silver coin collection and bought candy with it, but the fact that you lied to me about it, too, well, I can’t stand it!”) If you’ve discovered a lie (“layered” or simple), try this:
- Focus on the misbehavior, not the lie your child used to cover it up.
- Breathe, run around the block, take 10, calm down. Take as long as you need to take in order to deal with the situation, not the lie, or the fact that your child wasn’t honest with you.
- Talk with your child. Let her know that you aware of the truth. (Be as calm and level-voiced as possible.)
- Talk about values, and let her know that you don’t value lying.
- Give her the benefit of the doubt (she may be caught in a compound lie).
- Once the situation she lied about is resolved, talk with her about the problems lying can cause. Knowledge (and your obvious disapproval) will help her avoid lying in the future.
- If you don’t want a child who lies, don’t label her a liar. Kids tend to internalize the labels we give them.
Source: http://life.familyeducation.com/
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