Liar, Liar Pants On Fire

Marc really did not want me to post this incident tonight on our blog.  But this blog is a memory book , if you will, of our family & and includes the happenings in our life.  The good, the bad, and even the ugly.  Tonight, unfortunately, goes into the ugly category.


Over the past 6 months or so, Kennedy has started to lie about things.  Nothing serious, and not all of the time, but lying none the less.  After every incident, we sit Kennedy down & talk about why lying is wrong, why she chose to lie & how lying is not tolerated in our home.  

She gets it.  She knows that she is indeed lying, that lying is not appropriate, and that she should not do it.  

But she continues to lie.  And usually it is just about one certain thing. Whether or not she naps at rest time. Most days she just plays upstairs, but there are some days when she is tired, cranky & obviously in need of a nap, and on those days we tell her she needs to take a nap.

Today was one of those days. 

She even agreed that she was very cranky & needed one, so Marc & I were super hopeful that she would indeed nap during rest time.

Fast forward to 3:00 pm today when she came downstairs.  After asking her multiple times, she insisted she napped.  She didn't have the typical bed head & came down at 3:00 pm on the dot so we were a bit suspicious.  But when we asked 'you aren't lying are you?, she insisted she wasn't so we dropped it.

One benefit of napping at rest time is that she gets to stay up later.  No naps gets her a 7:00 pm bed time, while napping allows her to stay up until 8:30 pm.  

Throughout the day, we would randomly ask her if she really did nap, and each time her answer was always 'yes'.

Until after dinner.  She was sitting on my lap & we were talking.  I whispered in her ear 'tell mama the truth.  I won't get mad if you didn't sleep at rest time.  Even if you didn't you can still stay up until 8:30 pm.'

And then she did it.  She admitted the truth.  She said 'I didn't really nap.'

I knew it!  I think I kept repeatedly asking her if she napped throughout the day, because deep down I knew she didn't.  

I made her go & tell her Daddy the truth.  And then I looked at Marc, he looked at me, and we both knew corrective action needed to be taken.  We have talked to her one to many times about lying, and nothing seems to work.  

I knew the one thing that would get her attention & stop the lying immediately.  Taking away her beloved lovey.  


But Marc was against that.  He felt that taking away her lovey could not just affect her sleep tonight, but it could affect her long-term sleep, as well as feeling protected at night & in her room.  I didn't agree with his thoughts on it all, but I respected what he had to say, and we came up with a Plan B.


Instead, we made her get out a sheet of paper and pen, and had her write 'I will not lie' on both sides of the paper.

Oh my goodness, you would have thought we were torturing her.  The groans, moans & sighs that came out of our little girl's mouth, was insane!  

At one point, Ashby brought over her lovey to Kennedy to help make things better.  Such a sweet sister!

After she finished her writing, we sat Kennedy down & talked about what she did.  We, again, talked about lying & how it is not tolerated in this house.  We asked her why she lied & she just shrugged her shoulders.  When we asked her if it was because she wanted to stay up late, she shook her head yes.  We talked to her about why lying is bad & then talked to her about her punishment.  And we told her that if she lied again, we would take her lovey away.  Now that got her attention.

I know that lying is completely normal.  Our friend wrote on my FB wall tonight, 'You do know it is natural for kids to lie, right? Survival instinct.'

Yes, I totally know that it is natural for children to lie.  BUT it does not make it right & we will not tolerate it in our home.  

Plain & simple.

And I read somewhere not long ago that the sooner we start defining the act of lying and the negative impact of it, the better chance we have to raise a strong, honest and reliable child. I couldn't agree more with this statement!

I hope our baby girl finally learned that tonight & we do not have to go through this again.