what lies do you tell your children?

13»

Replies

  • Jennyisbusy
    Jennyisbusy Posts: 1,294 Member
    I told two little kids that I know that if they don't clean their room, the "Scaries" will hide under their things and come out at night. They have clean rooms a lot now.

    i believe i will use this one! thanks

    Yeah, not sure what scaries are - but if roaches and rats qualify it may not be a lie.
  • catshark209
    catshark209 Posts: 1,133 Member
    During the summer, I played outside from the morning 'till the street lights came on so my mom had a helluva time trying to get me inside to eat. So she finally started telling me if I didn't eat, I'd die. So if someone died in a movie, etc...it was somehow related to them refusing to eat at some point.
    I wonder how I never got an eating disorder from that?
    They also told me that if I misbehaved in any way the "hippies" and the KKK would come get me. Also, that God was watching me and he could read my mind.
    So as a result of that, I'm very skeptical and agnostic. My son doesn't believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or any of that other stuff. He says Santa is probably a 290 offender and the Tooth Fairy is guilty of a 459 (CA Penal Code) :laugh:
  • boomboom011
    boomboom011 Posts: 1,459
    I told two little kids that I know that if they don't clean their room, the "Scaries" will hide under their things and come out at night. They have clean rooms a lot now.

    i believe i will use this one! thanks

    Yeah, not sure what scaries are - but if roaches and rats qualify it may not be a lie.

    we will use the "coo-cooey" at my house. they are petrified of it.
  • boomboom011
    boomboom011 Posts: 1,459
    my parents told my sisters and i that if we didnt behave Soapy Sally was going to come get us. Soapy Sally was an old lady who lived in the woods and she comes and gets misbehaving kids and takes them to her house and turns them into soap.

    I may or may not have utilized the Soapy Sally on my children a time or two.
  • 42hockeymom
    42hockeymom Posts: 521 Member
    We had our oldest daughter (now 21) convinced that when she was a baby we'd strap her to the top of our blazer and take it through the car wash, that's how she got her bath's.

    Both my girls were told that this was NOT air freshner that it was monster spray to keep the monsters away.

    Santa, Tooth Fairy, (and if your kids ask what happens to the teeth, get the book the Tooth Witch, it explains how the Tooth Fairy came to be, and that the teeth become stars in the sky) and the Easter Bunny. My girls are 7 years apart, so when our oldest figured it out, she NEVER let on, she loved being able to play along because of her little sister. When our oldest was 10, she came to us, asked us to have a seat, because "We need to have a talk". That was a sad day for me.

    I don't agree that the latter three are outright lies. I FEEL there's a gray area. We've always handled it with more of the "spirit" of the season, and without getting into any religious overtones.... because I KNOW that's against the rules, we stress more about that.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,067 Member
    I don't lie to my children no santa, no bunny, no toothfairy ect.
    Guess Mickey and Minnie are out too?
  • kelsully
    kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
    We really don't lie and I really struggle with the fact that we have allowed all the freaking mythical characters, I feel like I am lying to them constantly...if they ask about santa or the tooth fairy or whatever I give the most truthful answer I can without giving away the stupid secret...I can't wait until they flat out ask "are you santa?" because I will answer truthfully and feel so much relief....
    We NEVER ever ever lie to them about important issues or keep secrets from them about things like loved ones being ill etc. we never gived veiled threats like "there will be no Christmas" if you don't behave......we never pretend that we are out of ice cream as a way of saying no...we just say no...why lie?
  • Johnnyswife
    Johnnyswife Posts: 1,447 Member
    Oh, yeah I almost forgot that my husband used to tell the kids that chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows. And chocolate ice cream comes from chocolate cows from Alaska :happy:
    I asked my dad where pastrami came from once and he told me it came from a pastramalope...lol Never asked him anything like that again. lol
  • Jennyisbusy
    Jennyisbusy Posts: 1,294 Member
    I did think of one that I am guilty of :ohwell: I say 'I don't know' sometimes when I am grumpy, tired, distracted.

    One time my son asked "Where is my Mom?" and I replied "I don't know." I was driving through really thick smoke from a forest fire and my son was in the backseat. A few minutes later I was all, wait a minute - what did you ask? and then we had a good laugh about it.
  • WifeNMama
    WifeNMama Posts: 2,876 Member
    We don't lie to our kids, but we do withhold information. My three year old asked me about how his brother came out of my belly. I figured he didn't need all the gory details just yet, and said we went to the hospital and a doctor helped get him out. He was satisfied with that.
    I don't see the point of making situations, like Santa, Easter Bunny, tooth fairy, etc. where you have to continually lie to your kids to keep it going. We have a grand Christmas, Easter, etc. without it.
  • sallyv22
    sallyv22 Posts: 22
    um, when they were little I told them eating boogers will give you butt worms. Santa, and all of the holiday innocence... etc.... Now, they are 14, 11, 8 and we have a 15 month old. I dont lie to the older kids other than telling my 14 year old " I think your mom is a very nice person. She seems like shes alot of fun" ( mom is uptight, control issues, and the most self centered person I have ever met. And she talks down to DD all the time about her Dad... so.... I try to be the better person. Same with my 11 and 8 year old, I tell them that thier Dad and I are "friends".. Which my x, my husband and I are able to pull off convincingly.... Other than tht, we try to lead by example, and are brutaly honest. Its hard now though, being asked about the corrupt and "bad" things I did at 14... and being held accountable NOW.... Im not even OLD enough to have a 14 year old lol
  • branflake5
    branflake5 Posts: 332
    i used to tease my youngest son told him he owed me 900$ for rent from when he was in my belly. lol he believed me until he was about 8 or 9, he even tried to give me money a few times and i would tell him he had to wait until he had it all to give it to me. and his older brother n sister were in on it they told him they already paid. he knows now that we were all teasing him but it was so funny at the time
  • fragilegift
    fragilegift Posts: 347 Member
    Aside from the traditional fibs (Santa etc). I told my kids that the planes flying over throughout the year was Santa checking up on them.

    One Christmas I put the presents from Santa in the dining room, in the kids spots. The dining room door was shut (took a bit or preplanning, this did, to have the dining room door shut at night for a week or so when it would usually be open). Best part? there was a handy nail on the window sill, upon which a scrap of red fabric was placed. Christmas morning there weren't presents in their rooms, (this may have been traumatic) but there were presents at the table! and look!! Santa tore his pants getting out of the window!!

    I told them that the white beans in the soup were lizard eggs. D2 refuses to eat beans to this day.

    One day we had tuna mornay (or something with canned fish anyway), and told them it was made with cat food. We must have had cats eating canned food at the time. Same daughter refuses to eat canned fish still. Must have been an impressionable age, coz her older sister and brothers, and younger brothers are ok :)

    Oh, another one...the anchovies on the pizza were skun lizards. Same daughter, same reaction. (she also refuses to eat sausages coz they are made from intestines, and doesn't believe me when I try and tell her modern sausages have a fake casing. No idea why she won't believe me O.o kids these days. )
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
    The only obvious one is Father Christmas. Even there, I try not to lie, but more evade the questions.

    I struggle a bit when they ask about God as we are very much agnostic, but their school is C of E. They seem to think of God as an invisible giant ninja, and I really don't have any answers for them on the subject.

    "K, mom! It's 7am on a Sunday! We're off to Invisible Giant Ninja School! We'll talk to the ceiling in hopes that you don't get stealthily assassinated while we're reciting our hymns! Don't burn the cookies or you'll have to commit seppuku. Love youuuu!"

    Aside form the fact they don't do Sunday school...that about sums it up. When they argue there's a lot of "Well, I'll tell God to kill YOUR superhero!" And "God's on my side and he's bigger than YOU!" "Well Super-ninja is even bigger than God, so he'll fight him!" It's like Clash of the Invisible Titans.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
    Oh yes, and we told our oldest that porridge was slug soup and cinnamon was grated spiders. Amazingly, that actually persuaded him to eat it.
  • cobracars
    cobracars Posts: 949 Member
    I tell them they are adopted and if they don't behave we'll send them back. Currently they are 38, 44, and 46.
  • mzjessicab
    mzjessicab Posts: 195 Member
    When I was little my dad told me that raisins were dead flies. To this day I can't eat raisins. Thanks a lot dad....LOL.



    OH MY GOSH!! That is soo hilarious to me! I am at my desk cracking up!! LOL
  • glypta
    glypta Posts: 440 Member
    On my 14th birthday I went for a bath after dinner/cake. I got a really, really sore tummy after and my Mum told me it was the eggs in the cake re-cooking. I am 36 now and was 30 when a boyfriend laughed so hard and told me this was bull! I called her on it and she just laughed.

    This was a topic on the radio years ago and my favourite was " ifthe ice cream van is playing music it means there's none left"!
  • 1FitMomof4Girls
    1FitMomof4Girls Posts: 202 Member
    Three children~ do not lie to them, myself, or anyone.
  • melissalan
    melissalan Posts: 75 Member
    Up until the kids were about 8 or 9, my husband had them convinced that the meat on the sticks at Chinese restaurants was squirrel meat. He told them that eating the meat made him grow a squirrel tail. They would beg to see his tail.
    We still laugh about this every time we eat Chinese.

    When they were about 3 and 4, we had a Rat Terrier that we could no longer keep. We told the kids that the dog left us a note stating that he was really sorry, but he missed his mom so much, and he had to go back home. Not proud of this :(
    They know the truth now- that he went to the pound.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories