Tattle Telling

Hi T. M,I am a mom of a 10yr girl 6yr boy .Your daughter seem to be in the middle of 2 brothers wow that must be tough and her way to control thing is my inforing you of things. The more you look at this as help now the more you will look to it from her in the teen years,help her guide the importate stuff to tell you.This will not last forever,it will be something new next year.Good Luck ,Mom in Solvang

I think kids at this age get confused with letting grown ups know when something is wrong and dangerous to them and basic tattle telling. They see it as that person is doing something wrong and Im telling. My daughter also does this but I've noticed it is more of getting attention than really tattle telling. When they tattle and the person/child gets in trouble they feel like they are telling you "Yeah Im good and they are not, do you see that Mommy?" My suggestion is to not give her the attention she is wanting when she tattles, but encourage her and praise her when she does something else. Its worked with my daughter but there is always that sibling rivalry going on with my son, so it doesnt completely stop. Good Luck!! I have a question though, why the pepper?

The reason that she is doing this because she is the only girl you need to spend more time with her doing girly things join girl scouts and just the two of you go to a movie or shopping and explain to her that tattle telling is not always and good thing and that some things are left for the parents to find out all on thier own. she will enjoy the girly things you do together they are special and no boys around.

The more you react to it, the more she ensures that she is getting your attention, good or bad. I would calmly say, "oh, really okay." She's heard, but she get little reaction. Getting a reaction from you is her primary aim so go the opposite way. Or, if its important you can give her the reaction best suited to the situation.

Jen

Ride it out. It's annoying but putting her in time out, talking to her about it, putting pepper on her tongue isn't going to help her grow out of this habit any faster. My parents tried everything in the world to get me to stop sucking my thumb at night. Nothing worked. They gave up and eventually I just got tired of it (about 2 years after they gave up). When she tattles just tell her "that's nice dear". Make sure she understands the difference between tattling and telling, then ignore the tattling.

I find that often my child when tattling has something that she did that I did not find out about. I simply acknowlegde the info she gives me about another , and then swiftly ask her what she has not told me, about something she has done, that she thought I should not know.

Very quickly she will offer up some act she is not proud off, don't get mad or discipline, simply thank her for trusting you enough to tell you.

Soon she will only bring the information you really should now about. :)

Another trick is to have the child suggest what you should do about it, and then encourage her to use that solution herself next time. Empower her to handle her siblings, friends, parents , teachers, neighbors ect .

example. she comes in and tells you that her brother just finished all of the popcorn and did not share the last of it. " have you ever done something like that ? when was it ? where was it? What could you have done instead? " Thank you for telling me,now next time your brother does something like that what could you do to encourage him to share? Great ! do That. :)

This really works with my brood of five.

seems like she is between the two boys. How about letting the boys do some of the tattle telling on the sister. She might not like it, then you might be able to explain the sitation to he more clearly about tattle telling...