7 y.o. "stretching the truth" HELP!

[FMS619]

My 7 year old daughter has been stretching the truth, embellishing, etc. when she shares things from school. I discovered one this weekend because she told me she was invited to a classmates birthday party and told him she couldn't attend because we were going camping. I emailed his Mom, who I went to hs with and told her to have a fun party, etc. She responded with "what party?"

There have been other occasions where I know she wasn't telling the truth and then some times where I'm just not sure what to believe.

My 7 year old is a good girl, smart, reads well, has good friends, and we do many family activities together--she gets plenty of attention. Why would she be lying and embellishing her stories? What do I do about it?

Thanks for your help!

[lilymerkin]

My 7yo daughter also tells stories. I remember doing the same thing when I was about her age, too.

[eepster]

With that first example, I would be more likely to suspect her classmate decided to throw a party without consulting his parents than that it was a made up story. Made up stories tend to be more fun than that.

In general though, making up stories like this a normal part of having a reasonably imaginative/creative child. Just try to enjoy it while it's reasonably innocent. Use these harmless stories as practice for figuring out what she sounds like when she lies. If you get good at spotting the lies it will come in handy when she is a teenager.