Most children will tell tails or make things up from time to time, but what can you do when the lies become a regular assonance or more than that?

Start by having conversations with your children about telling the truth and lying: Stories, such as the boy who cried wolf could help with this.

If your child owns up to doing something wrong or telling a lie give him lots of praise and encouragement for doing the right thing eventually.

Set an example by never telling lies to or in front of your children ( we are all guiltly of telling some white lies to our children) more here.

When I was a registered child minder I looked after a little girl who had a vivid imagination that drove my own son mad.

For example, after visiting the beach with her school and I asked what she had seen, she told me a whale. a shark and a dolphin!

My son said that it was a lie.

I calmed the situation by saying that she knew that these creatures lived in the sea and maybe she wished that she had seen them, although she hadn’t.

On another occasion when I took the children on a nature walk in the woods, she ran on ahead and came back saying that she had looked under a bush and seen some fairies having a tea party, again my son accused her of telling lies: When the girl became upset saying that she had seen them I made light of the situation by saying that perhaps she had seen them and they had flown away when they heard the rest of us coming along.

Later that day she admitted that there were no fairies, but she thought that they might have tea parties under that bush. So the next day we drew pictures and made up stories about the fairies together.

If your child is prone to telling lies and ‘tall tales you could try managing their behaviour using my tips here.

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

x

Linked with