lair, lair, pants on fire

[janie1234]

Okay need advice here. My 8 year olds best friend is a little boy who lies about EVERYTHING. He was over for a playdate yesterday and I was working on my computer and overheard all the conversations they were having. He kept saying things like I know how to surf, I have a pet parrot that talks in 2 different languages, and that he owned every video game console out there. I know not one of the things he was saying was true. I mean I know kids like to lie. They are always trying to out do each other. It always starts with I went to China for vacation (when the kid really did to visit family or something) and then another kids says oh yeah, I went to Tibet and hunted wild goats while being chased by a giant snow monster. I get that all kids do this, but I have been a little concerned about the influence on my kids. Luckily my little guy knows enough to not lie to me (unless he wants to face the wrath of mom) but he also believes everything his friend tells him. What would you do? Tell him that it isn't all true? Leave it alone?

 

[banslug]

Janie-good question. My initial reaction would be to tell him it's not all true, but I think in the end that I would let it be unless my child asked me about it. Our kids have to figure out for themselves so many things that we wish we could just GIVE them. At least these little lies are harmless, right?

Oh, and I had to giggle at your title of the thread....did you mean LIAR LIAR or LAIR LAIR!

Right now, I'm sort of going thru the same thing. We have one neighbor boy/friend who always cheats at everything they play...doesn't matter the game, he cheats. They like to play the "swing game" (as they call it) where some kids swing while the other one who's IT tosses the ball to give the swingers a letter till they spell "OUT" and they become IT. Anyway, this boy, when he's swinging, always comes up with special powers to avoid getting a letter. The special powers are so OUT THERE and it's frustrating for ME to sit inside hearing all this while all the other kids (not just MY kids) get angry at him. I bit my tongue and eventually every single kid refused to play with him till he stopped cheating.

All that to say....THEY FIGURE IT OUT ON THEIR OWN, eventually!

Gayle

 

[janie1234]

At least these little lies are harmless, right?

Oh, and I had to giggle at your title of the thread....did you mean LIAR LIAR or LAIR LAIR!

All that to say....THEY FIGURE IT OUT ON THEIR OWN, eventually!

Gayle

Hi Gayle, . . d' oh (slaps self on head) yes, . . I did mean liar, liar. Whoops.
Yeah, I think that the lies are harmless, but what gets me is that my son believes every word he says. I sorta explained to him that some people just really want to feel important and of course he says "But Mom, everyone is important!" The funny thing was that his friend said that he has a video game and that he plays it all the time at home and has mastered every level. Well, we have the very same game so my little guy thought cool we can play together. So, his friend comes over and low and behold, he doesn't know how to work the controls, and my son asks "I thought you knew this game." To which he replies "Oh, well mine just broke yesterday." I know it really is just all harmless but I don't think it sends a good message. My son has aspergers (high funct. autism) so he takes everything literally.