Teaching the Virtues: Honesty
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
By Mary Dixon Lebeau
Little Jake was just caught in a lie….a whopper. He took Chrissy’s ball and refused to give it back to her. When their preschool teacher confronted her, the boy first said the ball was his, then changed his story. “She gave it to me,” he told the teacher, as the little girl vehemently denied this.
The teacher, not sure what to believe, tells Jake’s mom the story when she arrives to pick him up. “I can’t believe it,” the mom says with wide eyes. “We never have problems like this with him at home. Jake has always been a very truthful child.”
“But mom, remember the time he told you I drew on the wall, when we all saw him do it?” Jake’s oh-so-helpful older sibling pipes up.
Sound familiar? If you’re being honest with yourself, you’ll admit that something similar has happened to you (or, if it hasn’t, it will. Believe me.)
As the playground chant indicates, children knowingly tell lies from a very early age – and can recognize the difference between truth and dishonesty. If your child is having a problem being honest, it is important to determine the root of the problem.
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