Have you ever ruminated why your child lied about anything to you? Analogous to most other parents, does this continue bothering you a lot? Well, you just landed up at the perfect place to know what you can do about it by handling it properly. According to several kinds of research, children tend to commence lying at a tender age of around three. However, this trait peaks at an age ranging from six to ten. Your child might lie to you in order to accomplish a task, maybe he/she is an attention seeker, to observe your response and actions or some other reasons as well. Today, we are going to have a look at how parents can deal with this effectively.
Dealing with children who lie
Here are a few things that you can try in order to solve this issue-
Focus on the solution rather than yelling
Often, parents tend to do this mistake of yelling a lot at their that they get encouraged to do this stuff again and again. As a repercussion, parents fail to focus on the solution of the problem and rather tend to vent out their unnecessary emotions on their children. Try to stay as calm as possible and ensure that your child follows the solution that you have provided. Also, ensure that the child knows the consequences he/she will have to face if they fail to co-operate.
The role model theory
You must be a good role model for your child in terms of speaking the truth at all times. This is because children tend to follow their parents a lot while growing up. If your child catches you speaking lies, he/she is bound to repeat that no matter what.
Help your child in identifying the perils of speaking lies. You can connect the dots with some favourite fictional character of your child. For example- If your child loves Iron Man, convince him/her that he is a superhero only because he speaks the truth and if you do not follow him, you will be treated like a villain in everybody’s eyes. Children tend to emulate their favourite characters. Use this to your advantage.
Reward honesty
Help your child earn some rewards each time they speak the truth. For example- It can be a penny dropped into their piggy boxes or a favourite toffy which they earn after collecting a number of truths.
You can also lure by saying that if you exceed let us say 1000 truths, we will buy you your favourite toy. But you must not lie otherwise there will be consequences that are pre-decided by you. Let your child understand the importance of honesty.
Engage your child in social activities
Many researchers observe that fussy toddlers lie just because they want some attention or are apparently low in self-esteem. They just want you to focus on them. If this is the case, be a keen observer and engage them in activities where they make a lot of new friends boosting their self-esteem and confidence. Also, by observing many strangers speaking the truth, they will want to follow them and garner more attention.
These are a few points you must keep in your mind while dealing with these things. Surely, you will see the change after some time. Good luck parents!