Sort posts
Popular searches
Small stuff mostly. "Did you brush your teeth?" Yes (toothbrush dry). "Did you hit your sister?" No (sister crying, red mark). "Who drew on the wall?" A ghost.
My wife and I both feel strongly about honesty. How do you handle it without turning every day into an interrogation?
Don't ask questions you already know the answer to. That's the big one. "I can see your toothbrush is dry, let's go and brush" instead of "did you brush". You're giving them the chance to lie, and they take it.
Lying at that age is actually a developmental milestone, believe it or not. It means they understand other people have different thoughts. Doesn't mean you ignore it, but it's not a sign of being a bad kid.
We made it really clear that telling the truth gets a smaller consequence than lying. "If you tell me the truth you won't be in trouble for lying. You might still need to clean the wall." It took a while but our son now owns up more.
@Nina_K that's a good point, I do ask about things I already know. Never thought about it that way.
The ghost though. Give him points for creativity.
Two weeks on, we stopped asking gotcha questions and praised him hugely when he owned up to breaking a plate. He was so proud of himself for telling the truth. The ghost has also retired.
Log in to replyGuests can’t post on the forum — signing up takes a minute.
