DS (9yo) showed me a newly aquired object (similar to a soft toy) that he had "found under the bed" (we keep all soft toys under the bed. Most of which belong to DD, who is constantly acquiring new soft toys) .
I realised he must be lying, because if he had found it under the bed, he would have presumed it was DD's. Or maybe I could just tell he was lying.
Anyway, I gave him a few chances to tell me where it was from, etc. He maintained it was from under the bed.
So I got cross, told him he had the time it took to brush his teeth to tell me where it was from, then marched him downstairs, glaringly like an evil headmistress, told him he would stand there until he told me exactly where it was from. (Cue tears and a confession he had saved up his truck money and bought it from the book fair at school) Apparently he hadn't told me because he thought I would be cross (no idea why he thought that. I would have muttered "For heavens sake, you need to eat a snack if you aren't going to eat any lunch". but I wouldn't be even half as cross as him lying about it!!!
We had a talk about the family being a team, and we don't lie to each other. And we did make friends and have a hug before he went to bed.
What I want to know is, how do you get children to come out with the truth without putting bamboo under their nails (or what ever)? Or how do you get them not to lie in the first place?