Lying 4 Year Old

I second Meagan E's advice. I have a four year old going through this now, we use the same approach and it is working. This morning she lied about hitting her brother. We knew she was not telling the truth and she seemed to pick this up. She thought about it for about a minute and then fessed up. You may find that correcting it is fairly simple when you are clear about your expectations for honesty.

It's completely a part of growing and maturing. Learning the difference between their make believe world and reality, and knowing that they have to define a difference. We are continuely explaining to my son that there is a difference between "story time" and "truth time". When we are being silly or playing we can tell stories and make things up, but when someone ask us a serious question we have to tell the truth. I haven't had to say it in a month or so but there was a few months that with everything he said I had to ask if it was a story or if it was the whole truth. He KNEW the difference, they just don't know there are apporpiate times to use the difference. It's part of brain development.

When my son was 4 he went through the same thing he would lie about everything!!! I either read or someone told me they don't actually know they are lying they just don't want to get in trouble so they tell you what they think you want to hear. If your child has lied to you ask them the same question again but make sure you don't get mad when you repeat the question. Usually if you give them a chance they will give you the correct answer.

My son is now 6 and he does not have a problem with lying. Sometimes I catch him in a fib about why his sister is crying but if I give him "the look" he will fess up.

I hope this helps you!!

i think lying at that age is pretty normal. most kids don't really realize they are "lying" but just telling stories. When you catch her ina lie, tell you know she is not telling the truth and that it's not acceptable. give another chance to change her story and tell her the "real" story or she will be punished...time out, take something away. ect until she is ready to tell the truth.

Have you tried to take something away from her, when she lies to you? Or do what i did i took my 7 year old to toys r us. And i told her that she could get anything that she wanted. After she filled the cart, i told her that i lied to her and we,was not getting none of these things until she stopped lying to me. And she stopped her lying to me. It took about 2 months for this to stop.

Mine does this as well. I don't call it a lie to her I tell her that when she tells me a story that it makes me sad. She does not like it when people are sad. But recently she did a massively nasty lie, she peed in the sofa on purpose and told me that she went to the potty int he bathroom. It was right before Christmas, actually about two days before hand. I told her that I had a take with Santa and he heard that if you don't clean up your mess and that you have to never do it again. So far it worked. But make sure you word how you talk to her with out hardhness, they really don't understand what they are doing. So of this could be that she sees this from other children she is around and she does not understand they are lying as well.

My 4 year old also makes things up constantly. I know it is normal, but my husband gets really frustrated with her. As a result, she will often just give him a blank stare when he asks her something. I think she is afraid to answer at all. She's his step daughter and it has caused a real disconnection between them. I'm hoping things will get better as she gets older.

I also have a baby on the way, but I'm early in the pregnancy. I think being pregnant has really caused me to have a quicker temper than before. I'm trying to learn to relax and control my reactions. I am taking exercise classes four times a week, and working on making time to take a nap and meditate.