‘It wasn't me!’

So your four-year old daughter’s been potty-trained, but still occasionally has an ‘accident’ while playing before bedtime. When you gently reflect on this with her, her response is: ‘Mommy, it was Snoopy [the family dog] who wet me with the hosepipe.’ At night, with no hosepipe in sight? Of course, it’s natural to be concerned about this absurd lie, but is it really a problem?

Absolutely not, according to Joanna Kleovoulou, clinical psychologist and founder of PsychMatters Wellness Centre in Johannesburg, because lying is completely normal. ‘We need to be honest enough to accept that we all lie,’ she says, ‘and that even children as young as two do so. In fact, lying is a sign of intelligence. Studies have shown that children who lie have better executive functioning skills [skills that enable you to control your impulses and stay focused on a task], as well as a heightened ability to see the world through other people’s eyes, a vital marker