My dd is 6, in kindergarten, and quite the creative story teller. For instance she told her teacher acouple days ago a meteriorite fell through the sky through our roof and hit her in the arm. One time we were in the car and saw 3 police cars speeding. Dh explained what probably was going on was a burglery or another police officer needed help. So the next day at school she told a parent helper our house was broken into.

Is it normal for kids this age to tell "stories"? At what point do I tell her to stop because it's lying or do I just ignore it? She knows it's wrong it lie and most of the time doesn't. I don't want to stop her creativity either. What would you do?

my 5 yr old does lie!! She Will say that daddy hit her!! (Im usually right there so I know its not true!!) DH will start yelling at her I think it almost makes things worse!! (she is getting better as I tell her to not tell lies anymore!! If she is making up a story I tell her to say I got a STORY for you!!

I got yelled at by her prek teacher one day cause I said that she lies!!

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I would tell her the difference between telling the truth and lying- tell her about the boy who cried wolf. She IMO is old enough. If you ingnore it- I think it could get worse.
For example- when she tells a "lie" ask her did that actuall happen or should you have said- let me tell you a story that I made up. I would not harp on her all the time either.

I agree w/bluejay. Teach her the difference and when it's OK to do it and when it's not. But praise her stories and imagination. Just let her know she can't pretend that something is true when it's not.

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Adam used to do that. I'd find stories and drawings in his journal from school of a trip he'd made somewhere (which we never took), or that his baseball team had won a game (he played soccer and was not interested at all in playing baseball)...stuff like that. It was obvious that he was attempting to feel special and needed some more attention- Tommy just happened to be a newborn. I don't recall making too much of an issue over it; I do remember asking him about the entries and him responding that he was just playing around kind of thing. I don't recall it lasting much longer after that.

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Sheri~ Wife to Steve, Mom to Adam (14), Brandon (12), and Tommy (7)

To me that is not exaggerating or embellishing, that is lying. You could stop her when she starts and say, "You're telling a story right, that didn't really happen, did it?" That will make her separate her stories from fact.

I think it is pretty normal and shows she has a good imagination. But I'd definitely work on separating it from reality - because eventually no one is going to believe what she says, even if it is true.

It is totally normal at this age..but you DO have to stay on it to make sure she learns when it is or isn't appropriate! I think outright telling a lie is also the "norm" for this age...as every one of my 5 so far have hit it about that same age span! We just constantly stayed on the issue until it went away!

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