If your seven-year-old lies to you about anything and everything even when he's caught how do you know if he needs intervention or if he's just going through a phase?

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Answer

I haven't known one child yet (even the very good) who doesn't lie. It's normal and I'd let his/her peers take care of that for you. Once they are caught lying their peers will correct your child.

Here's a cute story that really happened:

My Goddaughter Emily was about 6 years old at the time. Her mom was feeding her lunch and went to grab a banana to give to her and noticed it has 50 or more tiny brown holes in it. Of course she had a fit and thought that there were bugs in the banana (uncommon.) She questioned her daughter about it, but nope, the daughter had not touched that banana. Off mom goes phoning the store and the store informed the company that had shipped the bananas to them. By this time my Goddaughter knew in her tiny mind that things were getting out of hand so she confessed that she had taken a needle and was just wasting her day away poking holes in this banana. Her mother could have disowned her right then and there because she was faced with the embarrassing job of apologizing to the store and the company that shipped those bananas. At least it gave a lot of people a good laugh.

Oh, it does go on into the teens (lying about where they are going, who they are seeing, etc.) My sister-in-law told her 15 year old daughter Narelle to clean up her room. When she got home she asked her daughter if she'd cleaned her room. Of course her daughter lied and said she had, shrugged her shoulders and went about her business. About an hour later (mother's intuition) my sister-in-law went up to her daughter's room and was struck dumb by the mess in her daughter's bedroom ... the H Bomb had nothing on this mess! LOL Instead of my sister-in-law saying anything, she waited until Narelle's 3 girlfriends came for the evening and that's when my sister-in-law got even! She said to the 3 friends, "You know girls, I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter. She causes me little trouble and when I ask her to do something I sure can count on her. For example ... come with me, and I'll show you how neat she is and I can always count on her to keep her room clean and tidy." Up she took the girls and of course at that age the girls were over-dramatic and were moaning, groaning, hissing, booing and every other sound they could make. Narelle was embarrassed down to her toes and refused to talk to her mother for a couple of days, but to this day Narelle's room is as clean as can be.

When in doubt we should reach back into our own childhood. I remember lying like a sidewalk on many occasions. I was afraid to admit I had done wrong because it meant punishment (not that I was severely beaten as a child) and knew I would blow my chances of going to the Saturday Matinee with my friends. I would also steal loose change my father left on his dresser, and once my brother stole some comic books and stood there and lied one lie after another to my mother as to how he got those comic books. In the end he flew into tears, my mom marched him to the store and made him face up to the owner of the store. My mom scared the wits out of him by telling him the owner of the store might accept his apology or the police would come and handcuff him and take him to jail. My brother never stole from a store again! LOL

Although very frustrating for you I wouldn't get too bend out of shape over your child lying at this stage of the game. If he steals anything (also normal for most kids) then do what my mom did and make him face up to lies he's caught in or, play a trick or two on him like my sister-in-law did.

Good luck God Bless Marcy

First answer by Marcy. Last edit by Marcy. Contributor trust: 4194 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 46 [recommend question]