Ds(5) lies lies lies!

[Feelingblue222]

DS has taken to lying recently, which I really hate but don't know how to stop him!

As far as I know most of the lies are over silly things such as whether he's washed his hands or not, but I don't want them to escalate and worry if there could be more that I can't recognise so easily!

Any tips for catching out lies and how to stop them please?

I think this is normal - I remember DS1 going through this phase around the same age (again about silly things like whether he's washed his hands or not). It was easy to spot as he wouldn't be able to look me in the eye! It hasn't escalated, he never tells fibs now (he's 10), so I wouldn't panic too much.

It's a very normal part of development, they starts telling stories at that age as their imagination is growing and they have learnt about cause and effect.

Just check his hands, teeth and send him back to do them again, I don't make a big deal of it and just say "Oh I think you must have gotten a bit muddled and been thinking about yesterday as they haven't been done this morning, let's go do them."

Perfectly normal and often silly things. Ds2 swore blind a few weeks ago he'd washed his hair while Dh had popped out the bathroom door (15 seconds) to grab his towel off the bannister and it had dried itself. He was most disgruntled that we didn't believe him.
Think princess idea is a great one but they grow out of it and are usually easily spotted by their complete ludicrousness.

Reassuring to know it's fairly normal, thanks! Hopefully he'll grow out of it soon as he doesn't seem to have any "tells" so I'm worrying that if he starts fibbing about proper things I won't be able to tell!

Lying is a crucial part of development. Imagine if none of us lied: 'Your new haircut is heinous', 'You smell', 'I hate you'. No-one would ever talk to each other!

He'll start to distinguish between 'types' of lies soon and things should get easier :)