A Pragmatic Approach to Lying

I came across this article, titled "Why kids lie: How to teach children truthfulness and respond to lies helpfully." The article was directed at parents, but I was immediately intersted because my two little siblings often lie about even the smallest things. The article has many practical tips for helping kids to stop lying. "Teaching truthfulness repetitively, not only after children already have lied," was one of these tips. Another one was "Not punishing truth telling. The consequences for coming clean should never be so severe that it's worth it to the child to take the risk and lie." The second tip is extremely practical, because I feel that many children choose to lie because they know the truth will get them in trouble. If a parent makes it clear that the child will not get a severe punishment for telling the truth, they will be less afraid of telling the truth. "Reassuring children that we won't be as angry if they tell the truth." was another one of these tips.

This article is very practical in explaining that parents need to set a good role model for their children by not telling lies themselves, because young children "soak things up like a sponge." I appreciate that Jody Johnston Pawel (the author) knows that there is no hard-and-fast rule for getting children to stop lying, which is why she is practical in offering many different solutions. Pawel also realizes that no matter how many times the parent tells a child "lying is bad--dont do it!" the child still may not listen and continue to lie, which is why a parent needs to be patient.
When dealing with problems involving children, I think it is best to take a pragmatic approach because parents will become easily frustrated if their expectations are overly idealistic and the child does not meet them.