Dear Baba Rumcake,
I’m requesting advice for dealing with my kid being a brat. She will lie about anything to get someone to feel sorry for her. Here’s an example:
One morning her and I were sitting and watching TV before breakfast, and she was texting my mom. Next thing I know my mom is texting me asking why I’m still in bed and if I’m feeling okay. It turns out, she was telling my mom that I wouldn’t get up and she was hungry for breakfast and bored because she couldn’t do anything that made noise because she didn’t want to wake me up.
Exasperated in Dallas
Dear Exasperated,
When raising a child, the rule of thumb is to ask yourself, would I do that? If you should not do it, then it is most likely that your child should not be allowed to do it either.
Your daughter needs serious discipline. If she can do this and get away with it, at this age, she is likely to do that as an adult.
Depending on how old she is, punishment should be appropriate for the crime, so to speak. As a teenager, grounding and taking away privileges, like the telephone, will work.
Make sure you follow through with your decisions. Do not threaten and back down. Do, what you threaten.
Giving her excuses for lying is not a good idea. Take this seriously and she will take it seriously also. If you take it lightly, she will laugh it off. Since you are raising a person to be a moral, functioning adult in the community, you need to take her flaws seriously. What you do will affect her character in the future.
Remember that your child is a gift from God to have for a few years. You need to show her the best way to be. Think: if this was a friend of mine, would I stay friends with her, if I knew she did this?
God bless and let me know how things go.
Baba Rumcake