Kids and Lying

Children start lying early and do it a lot at times. Reasons for it can be numerous and different – starting from the fear of punishment going through gaining the appreciation of the peers ending with a very interesting reason i.e. copying their parents... Let's discuss all these issues.

With regard to small kiddos (three-to-five-year-olds), their interaction with reality is often based on their own fantasy world i.e. their deception is often a play of wishful thinking. They make up things and innocently reveal them to their parents without being too little to realize that they distort the truth.

Kids of more sensible age back up their lies on certain more earthy reasons. One of them is lying because they want to avoid punishment from their parents – either because of poor marks or for other typically accompanied-by-punishment actions.

Another reason why kids lie is to receive approval from other kids at school or in the yard i.e. due to their shortage of self-confidence or certain communication skills. In this case kids just fabricate certain facts from their life which in their opinion makes them look cooler in the eyes of their friends.

Kids may lie because they copy their parents – a very interesting hypothesis offered by statistics. This may be true because kids sense lies very keenly and may respond in the same deceitful way.

Make sure you set a good example to your kids and try not to directly accuse them of lying because it may prevent you from getting to the bottom of things and make them even worse. Don't even pronounce the word 'lies', be gentle and substitute it with a phrase like 'I want you to be fair with me' or something like that if you want to reach positive results.