K.G.
I have two college age children. My rule was, if something happened that I need to know about, I want to hear about it from them. I told them that being honest is about taking responsibility for what happens and setting it straight. It is also about trust. I needed to be able to trust them as they got older in order to gradually give them more privileges and freedom. The problem with punishment for lying is that once served, things are not back to normal. My trust has been violated and my trust needs to be re-earned. Trust grow when anyone, child or adult, acts honestly and consistently. No child is too young to start this concept, it must be taught from the beginning, however you cannot expect the child to understand the concept when they are really young. Stories help them understand and examples "It is like if .... said and you... and how would you feel? Would you believe ...?" I was lucky with my children, not to say that they were always honest, but we did manage to avoid many of the big problems of being teenagers.