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Teaching Honesty to Toddlers
The Truth About This Important Life Lesson
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Two seemingly opposing days bookend April. April 1 is April Fool's Day – and April 30 is National Honesty Day. Does the latter apply to everyone, even those new to walking who still might be in diapers? Yes, even your toddler can be tasked to tell the truth. Seem like a tall tale? Or at least a tall order?
It is. But teaching honesty to the daycare and preschool sets is important. It's so important, in fact, experts and parents agree it's never too early to teach and model – over and over again – playing it straight, all life long.
"The best advice I can give to parents is to make sure they are great role models," says Dr. Gabriela Cora, president and founder of the Executive Health & Wealth Institute, Inc., author, speaker and mother of two grown children in Miami Beach, Fla.
She offers an obvious example: If you tell your child smoking is bad, you'd better not light up, ever. And here's another: Those sugar packets on the diner's table stay there, Mom and Dad.
"No other strategy works as well as this one [because toddlers] smell lies in an intuitive way and, whether or not they can verbalize this, they do learn from their parents and adult caregivers," Dr. Cora says.
It may seem your toddler is unaware of a complex concept like honesty. But, simply put, he gets it in his own, concrete way. And you want him to get it right. Starting now.
Dr. Laura A. Jana, a pediatrician, owner of the Primrose School of Legacy in Omaha, Neb., and mother of two, reminds parents that children under 8 years of age struggle to understand and apply abstract concepts, honesty among them. In her practice, she often gets this question from parents about teaching honesty to their little ones: "Can't it wait?" Like instructing healthy eating habits, the answer is no, it cannot.
