We are never ready for the first time or really anytime that our children look at us and tell us a lie. It hurts and so it is important for us to think about how are we or should we react. Our child development specialist gave us these 7 points.
- Keep your cool. Use the moment as a teaching moment.
- Don’t set traps. You do not want to pile lies on top of lies.
- Avoid labels. Children will live up to the label.
- Give them a chance for a do-over. They need to learn that they can make a mistake and make things right.
- Praise truth telling.
- Find out why they are lying. ( see step 1)
- Set a good example. Children see and hear and know more about us than we think they do. We are either all about honesty or we are not. Children will notice.
So there you are. I have a few more things that I will be writing about this in the next few days and we will be discussing who and what we can believe to be true this week with our students. Included in this will be some discussion about commercials and all those marketers out there trying to sell our kids “stuff”.