Lying

marleyc · February 2013

DH and I have noticed that DD1, who is almost 3, has started telling little lies a lot lately. For example, this morning while we were getting ready for daycare/school, DD asked me if she could have some yogurt. I said "didn't Daddy already give you some?" She told me that he didn't, but when I checked with DH he told me that she had just finished some. Also, she will frequently ask me if she can do something, and when I tell her "no," she will go ask her daddy. DH, will say, "what did Mommy say?" and DD will say, "Mommy said I could."

At first I thought this was innocent toddler confusion, but now I'm starting to realize she's no dummy and is engaging in some mommy/daddy manipulation. I guess I should be happy she's smart enough to figure out how to try to game the system, but I'm not too pleased about the lying. We've been trying to explain to her that lying is not okay, but we're finding that lying is a hard concept to explain to a toddler. Does anyone else have a lying toddler? If so, how are you dealing with it? Are there any good children's books that deal with lying?

BelhurstBride · February 2013

DD just started doing this too.

I really don't make a big deal of it. I don't know that she'd understand it. If DH is around to confirm that he didn't say it then the three of us sit down and talk about it. "You told me Daddy said you could play with that, but Daddy didn't tell you that. Why did you tell me otherwise?" Nine times out of ten she'll tell me it's because she wanted to play with it and we have a *short* talk about how some things are off limits.

I honestly don't think she's doing it on purpose and I think sometimes she honestly believes it to be a truth. Their imagines are just so amazing at this age.

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