Children and the invention of lying

For a while now our little man has discovered and explored the concept of lying. So I did a bit of research to see what parenting sites have got to say about lying in children. It's a really interesting topic actually and the phenomenon of lying is well researched - studies with children have led to some interesting observations. Here's a snapshot of what I found:

• all children discover lying by the time they hit their 4th birthday
• lying is a sign of intelligence (!) - children who end up doing really well academically also tend to start lying early (from age 2 onwards)
• apparently children copy this behaviour from their parents (surprise) - but also, the more parents lie - the more children lie
• it is unlikely that lying will just goes away - parents who don't intervene or pay attention to the lies of their children end up with children who lie more frequently
• child psychologists recommend to reward positive behaviour (honesty) and to not "set up" children (i.e. asking them for information you already have)

Finally a good mindset to dealing with children who lie is to remember why we lied as a child.

-Stef