How do you deal with a spouse that is always a know it all?

Interesting how many answers are giving you some version of 'tell him what an idiot he is' which will have the effect of both hurting him deeply, emasculating him, humiliating him, and reinforcing his insecurities... and it's exactly because of his insecurities he's doing this in the first place! Take that approach and the problem will likely get worse, moreover he'll bitterly defend how right he is all the time.

A better approach is the one daljack suggests above. Reinforce him when he does the right thing. When he starts going into a making up stuff kinda thing take amore positive approach at curbing it. Laugh like it's an inside joke between the two of you, tell him you love his sense of creativity.

Just tell him, its embarrassing to you and wrong for the kids. Remind him that the kids will repeat the things he tells them, so if he is telling them stuff that isnt true, then they will be the ones who will get embarrassed and will eventually show him up as a big bag of wind with useless information. For the moment he may think he is smart, but I guarantee with time, if he continues to big note himself then he will come undone one day, and he will lose the respect of you and his kids.

I dont know how you are going to make him stop him bignoting himself. Maybe when he sprouts off, just tell him he doesnt know what he is talking about and suggest he look up the net to get the right information. Tell him, he is not impressing you and is actually having the opposite effect because you are starting to think you married an uneducated fool. Embarrass him, show him up. Its up to him how he processes the facts. Maybe one day, when he gives his kids wrong information it will have such a detrimental effect on the kids that he will be forced to stop.

There is an add on TV for the internet which this situation reminds me of....it is very funny actually. A child and his father are driving and the child asks the father.."why did they build the great wall of China" The father replies, after looking like he thinks a little bit....."Its to keep to rabbits out son, yeah, the rabbits" The son goes to school and has based his entire project on what his father has told him. While it is a very funny add, you can certainly see how stupid information can have terrible effects on the child. I am sure, if this was real life, then this child would have been terribly embarrassed because all his class mates would have laughed at him which would make him feel very angry with his father. Thoughless words can sometimes make a child lose total respect for the person giving them the wrong informtion.

He needs to stop bignoting himself because I can practically guarantee it will come back one day and bite him on the arrse.

I have a co-worker. He comes to my office and blah blah all kind of stories such as another workers doesn't know anything but he does. Everything is very easy to him. He acted like he know everything around the world. At first I was patient listening to him, one day he came to my office and he started his blah blah story so I stopped him and I gave him my advise "Nobody is perfect, if you think you're perfect mean you're nobody" "Tell what you really know and know what you're going to tell " don't blah blah and it will strap you in your story . After that he change his behavior when he talk to me. He's be more humble.

As someone who does this sometimes, let him know that you still love him even if he isn't right! You might also point out that his know-it-all attitude makes him seem less smart, just insecure.

i divorced mine, but thats prolly not the answer you are lookin for........... but there are some that are so stubborn, even when you show them they are completley wrong, they wont admit it. you have to pick and chose your battles and learn to let stuff go. or you can try talking to him about what he does and have the kids talk to him too, if they are old enough. good luck with him.

People like that usually have low self-esteem.

Try complimenting him on things that he says that are truthful and come from things he really knows something about.

well this is a typical male syndrome. Dont hurt his ego , it is absolutely ok, it sometimes pays to laugh it off

Oh, just embrace him and be thrilled in his vast knowledge. Don't be so jealous.

You simply just say OK to whatever he says, you cannot argue back when he hears you only say OK : )

prove him wrong. He can't be right all the time