November 10th, 2020

Why is my child telling fibs?

Why do children tell fibs?
 
Across HappiMe social media this week, we will be focusing on LYING!

As a team of children’s therapists and coaches, parents/carers frequently tell us that their child has been “fibbing” or telling lies, and they don’t know why, or what to do about it.  This is a tough one for many families, so we wanted to share some resources and tips for talking to your children about lying.
 
The first thing to remember is that most children learn how to tell “white lies” or “fibs” as young as 2/3 years old – so, you aren’t doing anything wrong! They might learn how to “bend the truth” in order to escape being told off, or learn to manipulate fellow pre-school friends in order to play with the toy they wish to play with. The truth is, the way you deal with the “fib” is far more important than how they learned to do it.
 
In society, most of adults tell ‘innocent’ lies to those around them too. For example, have you ever eaten a meal at a restaurant that wasn’t up to scratch, but lied to waiting staff when they ask how your meal was? How about telling your boss you have almost finished a project that is due at 5pm, when you have barely started it? Sometimes, it may feel like lying is necessary, which children may pick up on… This is something we are going to explore throughout the week.
 
Check out tomorrow’s post for more on this important topic.

​If you feel in need of support, please get in touch. 
​
How else can HappiMe help you or your child? We offer targeted coaching programmes, which can be really useful for supporting you to develop more helpful thinking patterns. Find out more here.