How do I break a child of constant tattle telling and constant "body injuries"?

Question

I'm watching a friend's kid (4 years old) for a month, along with my 11 month old.

The 4 year old tattle tells over EVERYTHING. For example, "He looked at me." and "He sat next to me." and "The baby smiled at me." Seriously, things that aren't even bad she tattle tells about. I ask her, "Is that a bad thing to do?" and she says yes, so then I tell her it's not and I don't want her tattle telling over it.

She also has constant injuries. Everyday her foot, finger, eye, back, brain, whatever hurts. Or someone touches her and she goes, "OW! I am hurt, he hurt me!"

Annoying.

How do I break her of this bad behavior? I can't deal with this for a month, it's ALL DAY, NON STOP.

I honestly just want to send her to time out everytime she does it, but is that too harsh?

Answer 1

talk to the girls mother. that sounds like a huge headache

Answer 2

My best friend ahs three kids and the two oldest were terrible tattlers so she made a 'tattle bag'--You can just use a pillow case.  they had to whisper their tattles into the bag and then Mom would 'listen' to them that night.  the little tattles were generally forgotten by the next morning and eventually they figured it out and stopped all together.

Answer 3

My daughter's preschool teacher gave me this line...."what do you think I should do about it?" Answering this way makes her think why she is telling you this. The hurt thing is easily answered with this (but only if you know it is a fake injury) "are you bleeding?" No. "then walk it off".

My guess would be that these are things she says at home to get attention and it works there so why not with you. Be consistent with these answers and you should start to see results. Also, when she isn't doing these behaviors make sure to praise her. For example...if it has been an hour or so and she hasn't tattled tell her how proud you are of her and give her a hug. This will reinforce the good behavior. Good Luck, I know how annoying this can be

Answer 4

She just jealous.I would tell her every time she tattle tells she get 1 minute in timeout!

Answer 5

Ignore them for awhile, and they'll learn that you probaly won't listen, so they won't tattle. Worked for me when I was real little.