While the Bible is definitely the ultimate authority when it comes to morals, decision-making, and growing in faith, I have to say that the Berenstain Bears sure have a lot going on.
In the book, The Berenstain Bears Learn about Strangers, Brother Bear gets upset with Sister Bear because he feels like she is tattling on him. Momma Bear puts a stop to their argument and explains that Sister Bear wasn’t tattling—she was telling what happened because she was worried and upset. Momma Bear went on to say explain the difference by saying that tattling is telling on someone because you can and because you want to get them in trouble. That’s what you have to do—teach your children the difference between telling and tattling and teach them why it isn’t nice to tattle.
Before we get into that, though, let’s remind ourselves of why preschoolers tattle.
Sometimes their tattling is innocent. They’re just little town criers who want to spread the news. And then there is the fact that they are discovering the power and capability they possess to manipulate their surroundings by telling on someone.
Either way, you can squelch this trait in your preschooler by:
1.Reading the Berenstain Bear book mentioned above and talking about it afterwards.
2.Not responding to the tattling in the way your preschooler wants you to. When cause and effect don’t happen, he/she will usually stop.
3.When your preschooler tattles on someone, for an actual offense, ask “ What do you want me to do?” Then talk about their answer.
4.If tattling is frequent, simply say, “ You and __________ need to learn to get along. If you need help, I’ll help you, but I won’t listen to tattling.”
As you watched the Online Parenting Class video, I hope you were able to take a lot of encouragement from what you saw and were reminded of how important it is for us to teach our children to control their tongues. As I end this, I want to give you a couple of important Bible verses to share with your preschooler when talking to them about using their words wisely:
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. ~Colossians 4:6
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. ~Titus 3:2
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ~Ephesians 4:29
Partnering with you,
Paula Smith
Travis Jenkins