Would you punish your child if he made a false confession to avoid getting punished for "lying" (see details)?

Question

If your child said "Yes, I did it" out of fear you would punish him worse for "lying" if he said "No, I didn't do it" and you later find out he did nothing wrong to begin with ?

Answer 1

thats so horrible.....no don't punish him, talk to him about it, maybe he has gotton punished for "lying" in the past when he didnt and he is afraid it will happen again..

Answer 2

yes you punish your child, he/she needs to know they have no reason to lie. they can come to you and tell you anything.

Answer 3

No I wouldn't punish him, I would have a talk w/ him about it though.

Answer 4

IF this happens, then you need to re-examine your parenting methods.  Obviously something is amiss, and its not with your kid.

Your child assumes you will judge him unfairly, and will punish him.  The child would only assume that if the child had indeed been judged unfairly and punished for something he did not do.

Therefore the fault is yours, not his.

Answer 5

Well, in a way, he's sort of learned his lesson. He probably believed that you would misunderstand the situation and that he would get punished. I'd say that you should just talk to him about it, and tell him that whenever he has a problem like that, don't worry about misunderstandings, because you will always listen to him and hear the whole story. Rather than simply saying, "No, no ,no, I don't even want to hear it, OK? You're grounded and that's that." THAT, will not only not help, but your child will end up not trusting you. My advice is just talk to him and let him know that he can always trust you. Best of luck!

Answer 6

No. teach the child to tell the truth and tell the child not to be afraid to tell the truth. Explain why the child should just tell the truth.

Answer 7

No, because he already got punished for whatever he didn't do.. if that makes sense.

Answer 8

some how I think that is a double negative. you have gone off on a tangent. If your child is willing to lie about a truthfull choice then you have some very serious problems. Your child should always be able to comfortably tell you the truth even though he may be punished for the deed. In this instance the child fears you not the deed and or its consequences.  It is time to have a good talk with the child to re build the lines of communication. Dont delay - Time is of essence !!

Answer 9

For the child to make a false confession means that the child has already punished himself enough to take on the deed in someone else's eyes.

This child is suffering from too much punishment, so lay off.  The fact that he confessed to something he didn't do is enough to tell you that he is overly fearful.

Answer 10

It leads me to question wow whats the punishment for lying if the child will make a false confession just to avoid it?!

Answer 11

No not at all, why would you punish some one for lying? its normal for kids and adualts, telling them not to lie is bad, punish them for not doing what they were suppose to, and tell him that lying won't help him at all.

Answer 12

In that situation I'd seriously reevaluate my disciplinary approach, because it indicates that my child has reason to believe I'd punish him for lying even when he was telling the truth.  If that's happening, and you punish for lying even when you're not certain he is, that's a big problem.  If he's so afraid of the punishment that he's willing to confess to something he didn't do, that's a big problem, too (common with torture victims).  I'd stop worrying about the kid's disciplinary issues and start worrying about my own.