I got home from work to find............

You did a great Job there Momkey ! She has learned a wonderful thing and she will try not to hide anything in the future . You also have her desk as a reminder and a Keep sake !

Thank you!  Lying is the one thing that bugs me too!  If I can curb her from doing it, then I would be the happiest mom!  So, I will praise her when she tells me the truth!  And continue to talk to her about what lying does, and the importance of telling the truth as you said! 

I'm glad I could help!  Just keep in mind they need a lot of patience!   I feel that if you want them to tell you the truth, you need to make sure they are not afraid to tell you the truth!  I'd rather her be afraid to lie to me!

She is 4 1/2!  I agree, if it is play pretend and it is appropriate then I don't call it lying!  I don't call it lying when they are play pretend at all, even when it isn't appropriate, but I do talk to her about it when she is doing it at the wrong time! 

She used to tell us her cousins did this or that when ever we catch her or find something we know she did!  So this was just something that told me that the talks with her about the lying is working! 

I may help her put a different color on the detail on the desk, but to change it too much is not going to happen!  It goes perfectly with her bed!  My dad gave me the desk and a matching dresser (at two separate times, he didn't even know they matched) they have a rose detailing on them!  As does the head and foot boards!  (We did not even notice the details went nicely with the bed until we put them in the same room!)  The bed is a miss America collection bed!  Now I don't know if the desk and dresser are an older set of miss America collection furniture, but as I said, they go really well with the bed, that is all that counts for us!  We are talking about maybe dry brushing the roses a pink or purple!  But that is a whole other thread!  LOL!

Yes, it does feel good!

I think you handled it great.  I try to do something similar as where I try to talk to them about the importance of telling the truth. 

Lying is one of the things that really bugs me

My son is only 15 months at the minute but I'm going to try and remember this for when he is older.  I know I can be hot headed and I've worked hard on changing that but I think remembering this for those times when things haven't quite gone right will help.  Thanks for sharing!

I think it depends somewhat on the age; how old is she? My boys are 4 and at 3-4, maybe 5, they are really still figuring out the difference between fantasy and reality and even though they often know the difference, they don't necessarily understand the concept of lying well enough yet. One of my boys is always matter-of-factly talking about made-up things (like his imaginary pets and siblings) and we'll play along but mention when something is pretend versus real. If they lie and we know it's a lie, we'll say we know they might wish that is true, but the truth is _______ and it's OK to play pretend when the other people know you're just pretending, but right now it's important to tell the truth.

If you want to go futher with the desk thing, tell your daughter if she wants to decorate her desk in a better way you can help her. Have her clean her dest with nailpolish remover then you can both go out to the hardware store, get paint chips in colors she likes, take it back to her room to make the final choice. Bring the desk out to the garage and spend a day stripping (if need be) and repainting the desk in a fun new color.