Children and Lying

My stepkids are here for two weeks, so we have a full house and it has been quite busy. It will be interesting to see how it goes since I will be starting my new job tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. My anxiety level is extremely high right now.

How do you teach a child that lying is just plain wrong? It is something that we struggle with my stepkids. In the past, this is what we have done. I made a "lying" bag out of a ziploc baggie. In the baggie, I included 5 blank index cards along with a pencil. On a separate index card, I wrote down 4 questions:

1. Is lying wrong?
2. Why is lying wrong?
3. Have you ever lied?
4. Is there ever a time when lying is acceptable?

I will usually "ground" this person form T.V. and video games until this assignment is complete.

The child is instructed that he must interview 5 adults. The child will ask the adult to sign his/her name at the top of the blank index card along with the date. The child will ask the adult the questions and will write the answers down on the card. The child is NOT required to tell the adult why he/she has this assignment.

Once all cards have been completed, the bag is returned and the assignment is completed and the child can be "ungrounded".

The child is put in control of how long he/she is grounded.

The next time the child lies, give him/her the assignment bag again. This time tell the child that he/she has to interview 10 adults and 5 of them MUST be from the previous interview.

It has worked for us in the past.