Explain to
me who took the bottles of sprinkles out of their basket, lined them up at reachable level on the counter and dragged out the camera. Oh, you-tube. *sigh* I remember when cute was a moment of
serendipity - with a sibling-abuse-case waiting in the wings...
It actually looks like she moved them to the edge of the counter to show him the evidence. As in the one was out, she took out the others and placed them next to it to show it was empty. It doesn't seem at all staged to me. She obviously caught him, asked him (you can tell they've already been talking about it), saw the sprinkles on his mouth and decided to take out the camera. I also imagine he used a chair or stool to reach them.
I wonder what the best way for the mom to handle this is. Maybe she could show him it's okay to tell the truth while at the same time letting him know sprinkles is a no no. Her accusatory tone probably made him just dig in deeper. Then, she was probably going for a youtube moment, dramatizing things a little. I'm glad I don't have to wrestle with these kinds of parenting dilemmas.
It's completely normal for this age group. A lot of kids do it until they're about 5 or 6. But basically they don't quite know what lying is yet, or it's fairly new and they 1. Don't have qualms about doing it and 2. Realize it's sometimes a great way to avoid trouble.
My classroom full of four years olds is like 17 pathological liars. "Eva did you pee on your chair?" "No, I spilled water" or "Melissa peed on my chair." And they often don't need prompting, they'll just approach you and tell you a story that is entirely made up. Like "yesterday I went to a baseball game and ate pizza" but yesterday they were in class all day.
Anyway, you won't often get them to admit the truth, and it's not necessary. Even if he doesn't admit it here, he''s learned that even when he says no, people can sometimes tell he did something and he'll get in more trouble if he lies. That's the point of how she's speaking to him.