FED UP of Your Child Lying? This is How to Make it Stop.

At a workshop a mum asked me, how do I stop my daughter from lying to me - she’s 5 years old and lies all the time?

Has your child lied to you, {first_name}?

I’ve experienced lying when my own sons were a similar age so I understood this mum's concerns. We want to jump on behaviour like this quickly and encourage our child to tell the truth because we want them to be good humans - do you agree?

It was just over a decade ago, I deeply understood that what we believe about ourselves shapes who we become and the life we believe is possible for us.

So it became my mission to figure out how our children formulate key beliefs about themselves - are they good enough? are they worthy of attention? do they deserve to have everything they want out of life? are they capable of taking of taking risks? can they handle rejection or not being liked?  - And more importantly what opportunities did we have as parents to help shape our children’s beliefs about themselves.

Great news {first_name}…turns out we have a lot!

So what do beliefs have to do with lying?

When a child first says something that we know is not true, we have the opportunity to shape how they label that behaviour. So for example, instead of labelling the behaviour as “lying” we can say they are “testing boundaries” or “being creative with their words”

Why would we not just call it “lying” because that’s what it is?

The simple answer is, a young child doesn’t know the behaviour they are displaying is lying. They haven’t yet formulated any meaning about the behaviour.  

So when we believe their intention is good and that they are not necessarily lying.. that perhaps they are just testing boundaries with us (which helps them grow) or being creative with their words (which is a great skill)...and we label it as such, they get an opportunity to grow into a different behaviour, one that we want more of.

How cool is that?!

If you want to know more about shaping beliefs for your child that detect all the good in them, join me at my next masterclass, Discover Your Parent Leadership Style

Lead them to be the best of them! 

Love

Dina x