Joanna Fortune: My young daughter keeps telling lies, is this normal?

She gets upset whenever I challenge her and asks why I can’t believe her

My five-year-old daughter finds it difficult to tell the truth. Usually, it’s about the little things: Her brother’s missing toy, paint on the wall or a running tap. But more recently, she has started making up stories about her friends at playschool that are patently untrue. She gets upset whenever I challenge her and asks why I can’t believe her. Is this a phase that will pass, or should I be worried?

All children will tell a lie at some point. I would go so far as to say that lying is as developmental a stage as learning to tell the truth. Children start to lie around three years old when they realise their parents are not mind readers and don’t know everything, so they test it out by experimenting with the truth. Examples include ‘I’ve brushed my teeth’, ‘I haven’t had any juice yet today’, ‘I didn’t take a biscuit’, etc.