As a former nanny, I can tell you that there are two major things that kids fib about: doing their homework and brushing their teeth. Itâs not until you threaten to go see if a childâs toothbrush is dry that you can usually wrench out the truth, but getting a child to admit when they havenât done homework can be trickier. Enter TikTok user Kayla Whitley, or @trying2communicatewkayla, who recently went viral for her sure-fire tips and tricks of what to do when you think your childâs lying.
Whitley spelled it all out in a video she filmed with the kids she nannies.
The TikToker often shares child care tips and tricks, but with more than 500,000 views, this one seems to be a winner.
First, Whitley shows âhow not to act when your kids lie.â
In the footage, Whitley enters the screen and addresses Madison, a child on her iPad.
âI see youâre on your iPad,â Whitley tells her. âAre you done with your homework?â
âYeah,â Madison responded â but we all know that canât be right.
âNo, sheâs lying!â another child in the video jumps in.
âNotice how when I give the kids authority (bad move), how confused I get listening to the different versions of events,â the videoâs text overlay reads.
Whitley then switches it up and shows what you can do to get a straight answer from a kid. Again, Whitley enters the video and asks Madison if sheâs done her homework yet.
âI see youâre on your iPad,â she tells her. âYou know youâre not supposed to be doing that.â
Again, Madison swears that she did her homework.
âYou did it? Are you sure? Because I feel like you may be telling me a story. Iâll give you one more chance to be truthful,â Whitley tells her.
âGive them one more chance to be truthful. Give them a warning that you know they are lying,â she wrote in the text overlay.
Of course, Madison finally comes clean and fesses up to not doing her homework. Success!
But if you want another option for handling fibs, Whitley has another suggestion.
Again, Whitley enters the scene and tells Madison that she sees her on her iPad when she knows she has homework. And again Madison lies.
âExplain natural consequences in a way they can understand,â Whitley wrote.
âHey, you know that not doing your homework only hurts you, right?â she asks Madison. âIt doesnât do anything to me. Youâre going to get a bad grade, you might have to repeat the second grade. Are you sure you finished it?â
Again, Madison finally fesses up with the truth.
People loved Whitley's suggestions.
"Love how you give them two chances! Great learning tool. I think we automatically lie sometimes not out of defiance but out of self protection," one commenter pointed out.
"Honestly glad I'm not the only one doing this with my kids!" someone else wrote. "I encourage them to tell the truth ~ their faces tells it all~."
"I need to be this parent when I have kids," another commenter added.
Other people even shared their own ways of getting their kids to tell the truth.
"Another option: just say, 'hey Madison I noticed you havenât finished your homework, [lets] go finish and you can have iPad time after!'" one commenter wrote.
"I started early showing my son that telling the truth will never cause me to get angry and he's 7 now and honestly never lies," another person offered.
"We always just ask them to show us the complete[d] homework real quick and if itâs not done we sit down and do it then," someone else chimed in.
Of course, there were other people who didn't buy Whitley's advice.
"We've done this and my nephew still lies after both those correct scenarios," one person admitted.
"Ok Iâm all for this technique but telling her sheâs gonna have to repeat the 2nd grade just cause she didnât do her homework is not my favorite," another commenter argued.
"Doesnât really work with teenagers by the way," another person shared.
Of course, not all advice is universal, but it's certainly worth a try the next time you see an empty math worksheet sitting on the kitchen table.
