Your child has just told you something you are pretty sure is not truthful.  What should you do? Do you call them out on it? Should there a serious consequence? 

In today’s podcast episode Stacy Bellward and Jim Jackson interview Chad Hayenga, LMFT, and parent coach. Together they tackle the challenging question: “What should I do when my child lies to me?” 

The quick answer is: 

Think of your big reactions like fertilizer. If you put big emotional intensity into calling out lying, you’re likely to get more of it. Take notice when your child tells the truth and give that a lot of positive attention. 

In this episode we address:

How to give big intensity to truth-telling instead of lying.

How to ask questions that set kids up to tell the truth, rather than questions that trap. 

Even when  your child lies, how to stay emotionally safe as a parent so you don’t allow your child to control your emotions. 

Consider this:  If you stop giving big energy to lying and start giving big energy to truth-telling, over time, where might you be? 

In this podcast we mention our Discipline That Connects online course. This course works to equip and encourage parents in many areas of parenting (including lying) using our parenting framework as the filter. This 8-session online course will be offered twice a year and is also available anytime as a small group.  We'd love to see you there!

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