Succeeding As A Parent

My son just lied to me.

It was not about anything "big" since he's 6 years old but it's something that needs to be addressed sooner than later so that it is not a habit that turns into lying about big things.

As a parent, it would be easy to get upset and punish him for this but what would that do?

I believe the more important thing is "why did he feel the need to hide something and then lie about it?"

Like any problem, the only way to solve it for good is to get to the root cause.

I want to make sure my son knows he can tell me ANYTHING and is not afraid to tell me EVERYTHING.

Then I will have succeeded as a parent.

How can I get upset at this guy anyways?