Have you caught you kids lying?

My daughter is 16 years old and over the years, she has told her fair share of lies to my husband and I. I have had several talks with her about it. she has gotten better about not lying as she has grown older.

Yes, I have ans she never started until she started school in the 2nd grade, so I am thinking she was taught at school because some kids did it. She never lied before then and I was proud of her because of that. Now I try to explain why it can be bad and can sometimes be hurtful of other people.

My son lies to me, but not all that often. He has had it drilled into his head that if he lies to me about something and I find out later that he lied to me he will be in more trouble than if he had told me the truth in the first place.

I try to convince my daughter that I take honesty very seriously. It is a consistent message, I think, from the parents to the child in my house. I especially call her to the carpet for lies which are intended to evade or avoid getting into trouble. Of course, there is a fine line. The other day, my daughter was supposed to go to the downstairs bathroom and use the potty. She went downstairs but was taking some time. So I opened the stairs to the basement and asked her where she was. She walked over to the bathroom and said, "I'm in the bathroom." To her mind, that was telling the truth. When she spoke, she was in the bathroom. However, as I said, I called her to the carpet. Saying and doing things that way implies she was in the bathroom when I asked the question and that was deceptive. I told her that deception isn't much better than lying.

My kids lie a lot, and I can't stand it. They always get a much more severe punishment when they lie, but they haven't stopped lying yet. All 3 of the older ones lie, and it's not easy for me to catch it either. One will say another child did it, and all 3 deny doing it, so sometimes it takes awhile to figure out. I just have to keep pressing them until I get one of them to speak the truth, then that one is in serious trouble.

My son is 5 and I can say he sometimes makes up stories to save himself up. I have read that it is normal for 5 year olds to make up stories and there is nothing wrong to it. but of course I never encourage him to do that, but I never tell him that it is lying.