Why children lie and how you can deal with it

Lying is often seen as a bad habit, it causes trouble, can hurt someone’s feelings and creates chaos.

Nothing good comes out of lying, it is always better to be straight up honest and confess your feelings.

There are multiple reasons as to why kids lie to their parents, one of the obvious reasons being to hide their true intentions and in the fear of getting caught or scolded.

It is known that strict parents often raise liars simply because they are too scared, to tell the truth and own up to their mistakes.

Telling the truth needs courage and when kids lack courage or confidence, they often end up lying.

Kids want to avoid getting into conflicts with parents, arguing with them and going through a heated banter. To avoid this, they pick the easy way out and lie to you.

However, lying can turn into a bad habit quickly and before you know it, you have raised a liar who would lie about everything, getting everyone into trouble.

These are some ways you can encourage your kids to stop lying and choose the righteous path of honesty and truth.

1. Discuss natural consequences with them

Your kids are not born with instant knowledge, it has to be given to them step by step. Preach them about the consequences of lying and tell them the difference between lying and telling the truth by narrating true incidents. This way, they would try to understand your perspective and put an end to lying.

2. Try to be a friend more than a parent

You need to draw a balance between parenting and being your kids best friend. Your kids should come to seek your advice whenever they fall in trouble, not the other way round. If you only scold them for bad behaviour, they will despise you and it will make them run away.

3. Build their trust

Re-establish their trust and earn their respect. Come up with a strategy to make your kids come closer to you emotionally and build a bond with them. This way, they will start trusting you and won’t lie.

4. Reinforce the value of honesty

Try to reinforce the values and importance of being honest. Be patient with them when they are trying to be honest and reinforce this idea in their head that they did a good thing by telling you the truth even though it was difficult.