As a responsible parent, you naturally want to teach your child honesty. Nobody has a child with the aspiration of raising a devious child who deceives everyone he/she comes in contact with. However, while you embrace honest parenting, teaching children what it means to be honest can be quite difficult. Below are a few tips to help you in this area.

1.      Be Honest –   When using honest parenting, actions speak much louder than words for both young and older children. It’s going to be impossible for parents to teach their kids the importance of honesty if they aren’t honest in their daily dealings. Adults are being watched much more closely by their kids than what they think. While your 5 year old may not say anything when you tell the restaurant cashier he’s 4 (to get the free buffet), that doesn’t mean the lie didn’t go unnoticed. This is especially true if you have teenagers – they notice much more! Therefore, if you want your kids to grow up being honest, you need to be honest yourself.

2.      Talk About Feelings –Many times children feel like their feelings don’t matter and keep them all bottled up (especially teenagers), which can result in a lot of negative behavior – including lying. Therefore, make it a point to talk to your kids about their feelings and tell them that it’s okay for them to feel a certain way, but it’s not okay to act badly because of those feelings nor is it okay to tell a lie because they feel a certain way.

3.      Acknowledge Mistakes –Parents aren’t perfect, but sometimes parents try to portray themselves as perfect to their children. This in itself is a lie. If you want to teach your kids what it means to be honest, then you have to be honest with them when you make a mistake. Honest parenting is all about being up front.  If a mistake is made by you and was witnessed by your children, then it’s important to go to them and explain that you made a mistake and then apologize for it. Not only will this teach your children more about honesty, it will also build their respect towards you and make them less fearful of admitting mistakes to you when they make them.

The three tips above appear to be pretty simple, right? Well, the truth is that they are much harder to do than they look. There isn’t a parent out there who wants their children to see them “fail” nor do many parents like to talk about their feelings to their children. And, it’s always tempting to tell a white lie in order to save a little money, but if parents aren’t transparent with their kids and openly honest about things, how can their children be expected to grow up honest?

Therefore, although it may be hard, try to incorporate the three tips above into your daily life in order to use the honest parenting model. You’ll be surprised at the effect these changes will have on your kids, no matter their age!