The Busy Life of a Single Mom

What a conflict we ‘ve faced lately. It seems that not only my own child, but some of the young adults I have the most respect for, do not seem to understand the importance of being honest because it’s the right thing to do (not because you might get caught). How do you engrave this into your children’s minds?

Case in point with my daughter (who is 7). Since the very beginning she has gotten in more trouble for lying than anything else. However it seems at times that all these lessons, have been in vain.  Last week, her teacher brought me her nail polish that she told him I had told her to bring to school. This week already she came home yesterday with a “yellow” stamp and told me that it was just because she had forgotten to put her name on a paper. I thought that sounded fishy so I immediately shot an email to her teacher and, of course, that wasn’t the case. She had been too chatty today - she wouldn’t have gotten in nearly as much trouble for that, but now I have to deal with this tonight. *sigh*

Just last week, I got into an interesting conversation with a young man that I admire and respect completely. He was going to quote some evidence, and he saw nothing at all wrong with adding a word into the evidence.  This was a young man that I would have never suspected, but he truly did not see anything wrong with just adding that one word. That’s what bothers me the most - that he did not understand why it was wrong. This young man is top of his class, goes over and beyond anything you ever expect of him, and it blows me away that we’re apparently heading towards a society where truth is not valued.

So the question before me - what I am trying to determine is how do I make sure my daughter doesn’t have this problem. How do I instill in her the value of telling the truth because it’s the right thing to do - not because she fears the punishment? Or for her to think it’s ok if she won’t get caught?