Your 4-Year-Old: Tall Tales

Tall Tales

Your child's storytelling ability is growing now that he's using longer sentences rich with detail. His tales now have a clear beginning, middle, and end — at least most of the time. Most of all, they're nourished by a lively imagination that's reaching new peaks. Your child is learning that a quick story is a way to share information, to entertain, and sometimes, if he thinks fast enough, to get him out of a tight spot.

Your 4-year-old now
Pair your child's overactive imagination with his exploding language skills and you get some of the most fanciful tales you'll ever hear. He'll convincingly tell you all the details of his trip to the rain forest or how he flew to the desert to dig up dinosaurs before lunch this morning. You may want to write some of his favorite stories down or have him tell them to the video camera so you can giggle over them together someday.

Some stories cross over into fibs — like the whopper he told about the mischievous leprechaun who broke your favorite vase. At this age, tall tales are mostly harmless. In this case, he's using his imagination to protect himself from the pain of guilt and the fear of punishment. He knows he's in trouble, he's nervous, and he doesn't know how to face it squarely. Gently tell him you know what really happened, have him help clean it up, and be done with it. If you confront him, he's likely to feel backed into a corner and will continue to deny any wrongdoing. Give him a way to handle misdeeds instead.

Your life now
It's not too early to teach your child how to use the telephone. Although you don't want to encourage random calls, knowing how to dial 911 in an emergency is an important safety skill. He can now remember three numbers in sequence (but probably not more — your home phone number is a little long for him). Show him how to turn your home phone and cell phone on and how to punch 9-1-1. Explain that he'll probably never need to call 911, because you or another adult will be there, but if something ever happened to you and you needed help, it would be okay to call. Stress why he must never make play or practice 911 calls. Some parents of 4-year-olds wonder if their child should have his own cell phone yet, and the answer is no. At this age, he'll always be in someone's care, so there's no need for him to check in, and outgoing phone calls should always be supervised by you.