I saw one of my close friends do this with her kids, and I embraced it immediately. It’s so hard, sometimes, to tell which one of your kids is telling the truth when they’re battling against one another. You know one of them is lying. Sometimes, you may know who it is. However, I want them to come to me with honesty. Their punishment will be less if they can be honest right away. If two are pitted against one another in a lie, I now have them sit on the stairs, holding hands until the truth comes forward. I have found this to work amazingly well. I might hear them arguing on the stairs about it for a bit. However, one of them eventually caves and comes to me with the truth. When they’ve realized the consequence is less when they fess up immediately, it’s rare that I’ve had to use this technique lately. I know, from previous experience, not to rest too securely in that last statement. It seems the moment I feel like we’ve “arrived” in some area of training; we’ll need to address it again. I’m finding that although we may never arrive, the moments get fewer and farther between, which is a ray of hope.
I LOVE this idea. I am starting it today. Thank you mama!
It’s been fun getting to know you, Amanda. You’ll have to let me know how it works for you!
We’ve done this too and also making them give hugs as a timeout. I think it has backfired though as my 4 year old loves it so much that I think he pesters his brother more to get into trouble so he can have another hug!
That is so funny. I absolutely love it. I have wondered if some of my techniques will backfire like that. I like the idea though. Might try it myself.