Question
My 3.5 year old daughter has begun to lie all the time. She was always more prone to lying than her older brother, but lately it has been taken to the extreme. I have read Dr. Rosemond’s books and I subscribe to his motto “ask them no questions, they’ll tell you no lies”, but she lies regardless. For example, the other day she approached me with a snack in hand asking for it. While I was thinking if I should let her have it our exchange went as follows:
D- “Can I have a pumpkin bar please? “
Me - “ummm”
D- “ please, I already had an apple! “
Me - “No you did not have an apple”
D - “yes I did”
Me- “no you did not,do not lie to me”
D - “ yes I did but I gave it to (little brother)”
Me - “I am very upset that you are lying to me. Lying is a sin”
D - “I did give it to (little brother) but he threw it in the garbage”
Me - (yelling now) “Get in time out that is all your tickets for today. Lying is wrong and you are not going to be a liar”
After I calmed down we talked about sin and how it hurts Jesus and hurts our souls. We also talked about how the feeling of wanting to lie to get our way comes from Satan, who is the father of lies. I then sent her to her room with no toys for the remainder of the day, and this occurred at 9 am. We have told her that from now on any lie will result in all tickets lost, we have also told her teacher that any lies in school need to be reported to us at home and will result in all tickets lost. Any other advice? I’m not at all confident that this will work. Her lying has been on her ticket chart for 6 months now and her lying has only gotten worse.
