Telling the Truth

Jeremy had a very short talk with Madi this morning about telling the truth.  When asked about her laundry the other day, she said she had it all.  I asked her where the rest had gone because she didn't even have half a load in her basket and five of the outfits were pjs.  She said that she got it all.  I asked her again if there was any under the bed, on the floor, in the closet.  She said no.  So I did it and left it alone.

As we were helping get her room ready for them to sleep last night, we walked in and saw a ton of clothes on the chair and soooo much clothes under the desk.  I simply told her "Madi, you'll want to check under your desk and we'll discuss it tomorrow.  Sleep well and goodnight!"

Jeremy and I talked about how to handle it as lying is a habit with her that we're trying to help her break.  She has been wanting to play a computer game Jeremy has, but we decided that before she could play, she needed to have a thorough cleaning of her room to make sure everything was where it belonged.  He told her that we don't tolerate lying or even halfway telling the truth and leaving parts out.  That we'd rather her just be honest about things as her consequence would not have been as hard had she just told the truth.

So this morning she cleaned her entire room and bathroom.  She worked so fast and so hard on it.  Not sure I've ever seen her that motivated to get something done before.  She has been wanting to play the game so much and was willing to be thorough and fast so she had more time.  Once she finished, she asked if we would check her room.  Jer was getting lunch ready and I was putting Julia down for a nap.  So we told her that we're proud of her for cleaning it, but she'll have to wait.  She was not wanting to wait.  She asked us several more times and while she stayed calm, she looked as though she was about to bust a few times.  We kept calm and told her that after lunch was made, we'd go up together and check it. We made her wait a little while to show her that you don't always get immediate gratification and we also gave her time to double check what she'd done to make sure she'd been thorough.

She really did an awesome job.  Room looks incredibly clean and things are where they are supposed to be.  And she has a laundry basket now overflowing!  So I'll do that before tomorrow so she'll have time tomorrow to put it away.

We also talked with her about if she had noticed that every lie she has tried to tell, we have caught her or called her on it - sometimes very gently, sometimes more firm.  And she said "yes."  So we simply said to stop lying and be honest about her actions.  Hoping that is something that will stick so that it will prevent issues with it later on - especially in the teen years.