November 10th, 2020

How can I stop my child telling lies?

“Telling the truth is a beautiful act, even if this truth itself is ugly.” – Glen Duncan
 
Over the past few days, we have been sharing information and tips on why children tell lies, and how to deal with it if it happens.
 
We thought it might be helpful to explore some of the reasons why children may tell lies or “fibs” in the first place. In our experience, these are some key reasons:

• Low confidence – Children may exaggerate their skills or experience in something to “fit in” or to feel better about themselves. This is, of course, about the opinions of those around them more than whether what they’re saying is true or not.

 

• Low self-worth – Children may tell friends they have more toys, electronics or friends than what they actually have. This is sometimes because they don’t feel “worthy” as they are.
  
  
• Low self-esteem – Children sometimes lie to others in order to make people like or respect them to compensate for not liking themselves. This could be by saying they like to dance, when they don’t, or that they love a TV show that they actually find really boring.  
  
  

As you can see, these 3 reasons can intertwine.  
 
If you’d like some useful tips for building confidence, self-esteem and self-worth in your children, please get in touch.  We’d be happy to help!
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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.