Why is it that lying just comes so naturally to little ones? Before, I saw it as clear and concrete evidence of the totally depravity that I believed was inherent in the human race. But if that is the case, why are most little kids so loving and compassionate when it comes to other things like animals, friends, siblings, parents.
Case in point: my five year old spent a couple of nights with her grandmother and her cousin who is two years her junior. The reason for this sleepover was that my sister was in the hospital having a baby. My mom told me how my daughter acted as a big sister to her cousin, helped her to the bathroom at night, and comforted her when she got homesick. It must have been very cute.
However, she's taking to lying lately.
We've had two occasions of it in the last month and both times the lying seemed to serve as a self-preservation mechanism. A broken doll and a broken razor were found, I knew darn well she was the offender and she denied it completely.
After telling her I knew she did it and asking her why she lied about it, she said she lied because she was scared. I sat her down and explained that lying was way worse than breaking something in terms of getting in trouble. I told her that she's allowed to make mistakes, but not allowed to lie and that big girls take responsibility for their actions. After the second talk I told her I expected this from now on.
Her big sister also told her that things can be replaced, but if you lie all the time no one will believe anything you say.
We'll see how it goes next time.
Case in point: my five year old spent a couple of nights with her grandmother and her cousin who is two years her junior. The reason for this sleepover was that my sister was in the hospital having a baby. My mom told me how my daughter acted as a big sister to her cousin, helped her to the bathroom at night, and comforted her when she got homesick. It must have been very cute.
However, she's taking to lying lately.
We've had two occasions of it in the last month and both times the lying seemed to serve as a self-preservation mechanism. A broken doll and a broken razor were found, I knew darn well she was the offender and she denied it completely.
After telling her I knew she did it and asking her why she lied about it, she said she lied because she was scared. I sat her down and explained that lying was way worse than breaking something in terms of getting in trouble. I told her that she's allowed to make mistakes, but not allowed to lie and that big girls take responsibility for their actions. After the second talk I told her I expected this from now on.
Her big sister also told her that things can be replaced, but if you lie all the time no one will believe anything you say.
We'll see how it goes next time.
