Help your child develop honesty.

Parents want their children to be honest.  Some parents think that it is in their child’s nature to lie and they make it their duty to punish their children’s dishonesty. In reality, parents often set their kids up to lie. Parents confront their kids accusingly and with anger and that is the reason they are afraid to tell the truth. If you make it safe for them, they will be honest. Help your child to develop honesty.

As a child grows, he or she can learn to lie from TV or the outside world. It is very necessary to neutralize it by reinstalling the value of honesty. Children are always afraid of your scolding, so let them know you will always praise their courage for telling you the truth.

Encourage honesty in your child:

The best way to encourage honesty in your child is to be a honest person yourself. For instance, don’t lie over the phone in front of your child, like telling someone that you are sick when you are not. Overhearing this, children will think that lying is okay and that’s what people do. Your children take their cues from you, so let your child hear you being truthful with other adults. You cannot expect them to tell you the truth if you’re not honest with them. If the question is awkward, be brief and reply according to the age, but don’t lie to them.

Tell your children about how much you value honesty:

It is very important that parents create an environment where a family can always count on each other to tell the truth. If there is honesty among the family, there will be trust or closeness in your family. Teach your child on how honesty is the very backbone of your family. Also, warn them that once the trust is broken, it will take a long time to build it back. Your focus should be on creating such an environment where everyone feels comfortable telling the truth and there are no secrets kept.

Give examples of Honesty:

Give examples in the form of stories based on honesty and in which people get rewards for their honesty. Make a daily routine to read your children such stories, be it fiction or based on real life. This practice will make your child realise that honesty is important to implement in life.

Don’t overreact when your children lies:

Help them find a way to tell the truth. Say, “I promise I won’t scold,” Give them a little time to gather courage “Relax and tell me what happened”. In due course the child will start accepting the mistakes. Let them know how much you appreciated their honesty. Let them learn the lesson that even if being honest is not always easy or comfortable, but it always feels better to tell the truth.

Every child can be honest. As a parent, you can help your children in being honest. So be firm on honesty and gentle on your kids.