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Her parents should have used common sense and tough love, in raising Casey.

My son stole a lollypop for his girlfriend from a convenience store when he was four. I brought him back to the store, made him return what he hadn’t paid for, and let the manager ‘give it to him’. (He told my son that “if you take something that does not belong to you - you are a thief. You know where thieves go? They go to jail, and will be behind bars forever, and never see their mommy or daddy again.”)

I know, it was very rough - much rougher than I thought it should be - but my son never stole another thing in his life, after that.

When my children started to tell little lies, I immediately confronted them, telling them that only mommies and daddies could tell if they were lying - because their tongue would turn black. I would ask them to show me their tongue, and if they stuck it out real fast, and quickly pulled it back in - they were hoping we wouldn’t notice the black color - but if they were telling the truth, they would stick it all the way out, and hold it there. (This only worked for about a year, when they were really young - but they never lied again in their lives.)

Now my children are grown, with children of their own, and they have used the same techniques on their own kids - and have thanked me for keeping them ‘straight’ in their childhood.