The Lying Phase

My daughter is going through her lying phase. This is the phase where you as the parent know they're lying to you, but they think they're getting away with it. We have been dealing with little lies here and there over the past few months. We started our handling of this by explaining to her what a lie is and why it's wrong. Once she grasped the meaning of a lie, it was like she went out of her way to make sure her lies were believable. Strike one, mom and dad.

Next we tried the time out method, which of course brought a lot of tears and shrieks over the unfairness of life when you're four. However, she has a knack for lying between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00, which means a crying time-out only exhausts her and she falls asleep. This means a later night for me because she slept for an hour. Strike two, mom and dad.

Today we were getting in the car and I noticed she had something in her mouth. "Avlyn, what do you have in your mouth?" I only asked because I thought she might have picked up some old candy off the ground or something. "Nuffin" she said. Of course, she's saying this with her cheeks puffed out and her tongue rolling around something in there. So I ask again. Same answer. I ask, "You have something in your mouth, don't you?" "Mm-uh-mm-uh" was pretty much what the answer was. So I told her to spit it out. Now I know I said this in perfect english that she comprehends very well. She looked at me and did nothing. "Spit - It - Out - Now!" Nothing.

Okay, time for me to play mean mommy. "You are not going to your baseball game tonight." That declaration was followed by a lot of screaming and crying and sounds of "I'll spit it out when we get home!!!!!" While I hate for her to miss baseball, just because I enjoy watching her so much, I knew it was the most effective discipline. I'll have to see it if worked over the next couple of weeks, based on whether or not the small lies increase or decrease. Sometimes education doesn't involve books and pencils, but heartache and tears.