Liar, liar pants on fire - Rebellious Kids and Scouts

I used to look at parents with rebellious kids and say "Man, they must be horrible parents to have kids like that."  I used to wonder why they would not punish them more or do something to make their kid change. Luckily I have changed my view especially as I have children and served in Scouting positions.

Rebellious kids are normal ever day kids testing boundaries.  They especially love it when they get a reaction from us as adults--I am often guilty of giving the reaction that they want but am getting MUCH better.  Unfortunately it doesn't take much to shock me anymore but it doesn't take a lot to disappoint me.  One of the most common things I see as a parent and Scout leader is teenagers that lie for no good reason and to be very honest I think lying has become an epidemic in the teenage culture.  I think that this could be due to the unrealistic nature of the internet and text messages of appearing to be anonymous.  Plus I do think that some parents shield, protect and down play the seriousness of this behavior.

This article on Empowering Parents is really good on the reason why teenagers lie.  I went down to the comments section and my heart absolutely broke for some of these parents and what they are going through with their kids.  It is interesting to note that this article says it is more important to focus on the act of lying as compared to the morality of lying and have another great article here on problem solving.  There is also an article about how to motivate your child to do better in school.