Raising honest children is a gradual journey that demands a lot of patience and consistency from the parents. Honesty is one of the most priced virtue every parent want to see in their children.

Simply put, honesty is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness, along with the absence of lying, cheating, theft, etc. Honesty also involves being trustworthy, loyal, fair, and sincere.

Being honest is not as simple as telling a lie. This makes children to rather choose to lie. Children lie for many reasons, sometimes to avoid facing some consequences and other times, to avoid disappointing their parents or their teachers.

 However, teaching the value of honesty to children from a tender age is very important. This can help to shape their character, build their confidence and take them to places they never could have dreamt of in life.

The following tips will help you raise an honest child

1. Model honesty: For you to train honest children, you need to, first of all, model honesty. This will make it natural and easier for them to replicate.

2. Approach with Caution and Love: Using harsh punishments on your children when they err can make them see lying as a protective measure to avoid being punished. Devise better ways to handle issues rather than being an authoritarian to your children.

3. Be clear about consequences: Let children know that lying has clear consequences and make sure that the consequences for lying are fair and reasonable and fit the situation.

4. Appreciate truthfulness: For your child to embrace honesty, show your appreciation every time she tells the truth. Acknowledge them when they tell the truth, especially in situations where it might have been easier for them to lie.

5. Question poor behaviour: When you notice that your child is exhibiting strange behaviour, make sure to question them. Let them know that it is bad behaviour and you frown at them.

6. Effective Communication: When children feel at home while conversing with you, they will be pushed to tell you virtually everything. Make the communication open and conversational.

7. Buy moral storybooks: In Accessible Publishers limited we have lots of storybooks designed to teach moral lessons to children such as; the ‘Jasmine series and The good moral series’. Getting them exposed to these kinds of storybooks will help them to develop an interest in positive values and also imitate them.

It takes courage to be truthful. To make it simpler for children, they need to be taught how to be open, transparent and direct on time. This will help them to embrace honesty and make it a part and parcel of them while they advance in age.