Honesty and respect—these two values become incredibly important during the teen years. Common decency expert, Colleen Doyle Bryant, and therapist, Colleen O’Grady, explore four common myths in the way parents teach children about honesty that actually encourage more lying in teens in this episode of Power your Parenting Podcast.
Learn more about some innovative strategies that encourage teens:
- To value honesty and see the importance of building trust
- How shaming doesn’t improve teen behavior and what to do instead
- How teens are in control of creating good and bad consequences through their own choices
When your child does something they’re not supposed to do and then lies to cover it up, …separate the wrongdoing and the lie—and both of them can have a consequence. But you incentivize the truth telling.
I had to help [my children] see that I was a human being with feelings. And if they valued our long-term relationship then they needed to care for that relationship, and treat me in a way that showed they valued the long-term, not just getting what they wanted in the moment, not just venting whatever frustration they had, but that it was worth being a little calmer, being a little kinder so that even when this moment passes, we haven’t done any sort of damage that can’t be undone.