My 7yr old keeps lying about being hurt.

My 7yr old step-daughter has recently started accusing people of hurting her or her brother (4), even when it's obvious that is not what just happened.Little background: My husband and I have only been married for a few months but I have been involved in their lives for a few years now. We are all very close and I consider them my children and they definitely consider me a second mother. There have been issues with their birth-mother in the past being jealous of my husband for moving on and getting remarried, but that's hasn't been an active issue since my husband and I were married.Initially, when my husband and his ex split up and he moved a few hours away, my daughter started this behavior. She would go to her grandmother's house and be watched by her aunts (13yrs-18yrs) and would accuse them of pushing/hitting/spanking her and they would deny it like crazy. Everyone was unsure of what was really happening until she accused her grandmother of pushing her. The story her grandmother told us was that my daughter wandered into her grandmother's bedroom while she was changing and her grandmother grabbed her by the shoulders and escorted her out. My daughter said, "Grandma pushed me out of the room and then pushed me down on the ground!" That's when we knew for sure that she was making things up, her grandmother would never lay a hand on her in anger or push her.Fast forward a few years to now - this hasn't been an issue ever since my husband and I moved to the same town as the kids and have joint custody. However, this past week my daughter has started the same thing. She walked backwards into a wall and scraped up her play horse she had in her hand and then tried to accuse me of pushing her when I was nowhere near her. She tried to tell me that a man had pushed her brother in a McDonalds when all he had done was gently touch my son's shoulder so that he would move slightly to the side so this man could get through. I watched the whole thing and told my daughter that this man didn't push my son, but she insisted. She has accused me of hurting her when I simply put my arm around her ("You hurt my head! You grabbed me and pulled me really hard!"), or her grandmother of scratching her when she didn't touch her at all, only admonished her for something. Then when she came to tell me about the scratching incident, as she was leaning against me I put my arm around her gently and she tried to tell me that I pulled on her and twisted her ankle.I'm not sure what do right now. It's a super tough situation because you don't want your children lying, especially about something as serious as this. But you also want them to feel comfortable coming to you if someone does actually hurt them. Plus, it looks bad to have a step-mom telling a child that she didn't hurt her and to stop lying about it. Thankfully, my husband knows that I would never hurt either of our children or not apologize if I accidentally hurt her. She also doesn't back down, she will fight you on the fact that you hurt her. When she accused me of pulling on her and hurting her head, when I simply put my arm around her, she was practically yelling at me that I did hurt her, that she didn't step closer to me (the reason I hugged her), and that she wasn't lying - that she was sick of people thinking she was lying.Any advice or personal experiences are so welcome right now. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2woYn7b