Honesty and How to Teach it to Your Child

 

Honesty and How to Teach it to Your Child

    Every parent will experience a time where they find their child is not being honest.  Wait for it because it will be a great moment to teach a valuable lesson.  Use this moment to teach what your child has done wrong, why it is wrong and how it makes you feel that they are lying.  Telling your child you are disappointed is definitely a good place to start.   

   Sometimes during these moments your child may even confess that they were not telling the truth.  Praise their honesty at that moment even if deep down you are still more upset about the lie.  In realty we should praise the good behavior more than giving consequences for the bad behavior.   You will find that most children will rather have you praising them for telling the truth every time they are honest.  Lying will be a thing of the past because your happiness with them will encourage more honesty.   

    

If you do not use these moments to educate your child about the importance of honesty than you are simply teaching them how to be dishonest.  Every time you pass up that opportunity to teach any valuable lesson you are actually teaching them the opposite of what you actually want them to learn.  

Sometimes we have strong values we want to instill into our child and we can try to talk to them everyday until we are blue in the face.  Well, if you wait for the moment to come to you and your child, you can utilize the event to teach a lesson where you actually use examples from the moment. You will have a much better response.

Do you lie to your child? Do those little white lies that you keep telling harm your child? I'm not talking about Santa Clause here.  I'm talking about how some parents lie to their child in hopes to not address an issue or question.  Well after much experience I will tell you that by doing this you are telling your child that it's ok to lie.  They will see and learn what you do.  They will figure out that you aren't being honest and then they catch you.  Some parents have this analogy that being a parent gives them the right to do whatever they want and that won't work out for you if your plan is to make a successful and kind and honest human being.  

I guess as parents we need to remember that your child sees you and learns everything you do.  If you lie they will lie or they will learn not to lie because they do not want to be like you.  What would you rather have? Some children can be an exception and become compulsive liars.  This is an entirely different situation although in all actuality it started somewhere.