Probably more simpler than you think, but lets hear some suggestions .....
How do you teach someone honesty?
- Thread starter lightgigantic
- Start date
by lying to them
Show them some of the consequences of lying. Like "Hey, this hotplate is really cold, try touching it!".
which gets to the crux of it I guess - can a person learn honesty without an example to follow?
It starts with YOU being honest with them, if you're not an honest person to begin with then nothing you do can ever help them for they can see right through you. If they are very young kids then you still have to be honest to begin with to teach them what honesty is by just living your life and treating those kids with honesty. Whenever any question is asked answer as honsetly as you possibly can.
I'd have to agree that the main point is by being honest with them, but also by not being accepting of what they say so that they feel they can be honest. If the child thinks you're going to throw a fit if they tell you they broke your coffee mug, then they're not going to tell the truth. You can reward or affirm their honesty at the same time you punish (if necessary) a bad behavior (and I mean punish in a sensible way).
It is particularly difficulty today though to teach honesty given a social climate that often condones or evens rewards lying.
It is particularly difficulty today though to teach honesty given a social climate that often condones or evens rewards lying.
Grantywanty
Registered Senior Member
by example, for starters, even when it is not easy. Admitting to a child when you were wrong in relation to them is very powerful.
Start by telling them Santa isnt real.
Why would you want to teach a child honesty? In the real world, success correlates with lying ability.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Wouldn't you have to know what honesty is to be able to lie ?
It's a nice theory, but in practice we do nothing but lie to our children and they lie to us unless they are still very young and haven't gotten the concept yet that the other person does not know what you are thinking. Once they find out that there is a difference between what you think and what is perceived by the other all bets are off.
The living of the lie has started.
Perfectly normal.
The only honest thing I ever tell my children is that McDonalds is evil, and they don't believe me. Well, the other truth is that I tell them that I am a doctor, which is answered by: 'No, you are lying. This is not the house of a doctor'.
Which is true of course. Not quite the house a medical doctor would live in.
They wouldn't, but they still would want to take the others candy.
Not if they were brought up to respect others. Were you brought up to disrespect others and take their things from them?
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
With people you can trust, like friends and trustworthy family members. Of course, ultimately, no one is to be trusted a 100% all the time.
I agree, always watch your back.
Yeah, ....isn't in interesting that you make a firm statement, then in the very next sentence, you negate that first firm statement?!
Baron Max