Lies I Have Told My Children....

[DiamondLil]

I'm needing a sanity break (and I'm sure I'm not the only mom that has ever fibbed to her kids) so I wanted to hear some of the untruths you have told your kids (for the fun of it, or for the sake of their tender feelings). I'll start!

- My then 3 year old daughter was driving with me when we passed by a dead cat lying in the sidewalk. With big tears in her eyes, shes asked me if the cat was okay. Not wanting to break my little girls heart, I came up with a story that the cat was taking a nap because she was out all night playing with her friends and was all tired out. Bless her heart, wiped her eyes and asked me if the cat was sleeping. I said yes, she was out playing all night and was so tired now she has to take a nap. My daughter is now 22 and she still remembers that story (I have since come clean about it, but she says its okay, given the circumstances - who wants to talk about life & death with a 3 year old?).

I can remember about 7 lies I told my kids (in humor and in efforts to spare their feelings). If you have some stories to share I'd like to read them (and know that I'm not the only "liar-liar, pants on fire" here in SC!

[avoncallingu]

This isn't my story but one of a friend's - I managed to spill the beans to her adult daughter a few months ago and it turned out that not even her husband knew. I thought she was going to kill me! She has 3 children who each had their own bedroom. One, which was the youngest's was significantly smaller than the rest. Her daughter would ask, when she was a little girl if she couldn't have a bigger bedroom. Her mother replied, thinking her daughter would give up on the idea, that she had already called the carpenter and that he would be around to fix things and make the room bigger "in a few weeks ". Her daughter didn't give up asking for quite a while and the mother always had another addendum like, "Oh, he can't come when it's snowing," or "He's gone on holidays but he'll be back soon."
I thought it must be a well-worn family story by now, but, apparently it was I who finally let the cat out of the bag. Both father and daughter were horrified. Good thing my friend still speaks to me!

[walkonby]

I enjoyed both of those tales @DiamondLil and @avoncallingu
I am not sure if this is really a LIE I told my kids.....o.k. it was!! ha ha ha

Things were only " stressful " for us as parents from the time the 3rd kid arrived until the eldest started HS......(sarcasm)
Working opposite shifts in order to duck the cost of day care or babysitters added to this stress and since I worked days I was the supper maker, laundry doer, homework helper, bedtime story reader...whatever! I had many hats as all Moms do.

I was usually exhausted after my FT work day was over and once dinner was done I REALLY just wanted them all to go to bed. Like NOW!
Problem was, it was only about 5 or 6 p.m. so I slyly went around and turned the analog clocks ahead so they read 8 p.m. ... then I announced it was bath and bed time!!
Our eldest was o.k enough at telling time and confirmed that the little hand on the clock confirmed the time.
Smarty pants ( middle kid ) asked why was it still so light outside?? ...I deflected quickly asking them what they'd like as a quick bedtime snack!

Yup. I did that! I got all of them to go bed so freaking early so that I could also flop into bed and get much needed sleep!

Sorry kids....one day maybe you'll know how tough parenting is.

[Giseledta]

3 kids... busy day of running around... and they were hungry ... but i swear if i saw another thing of french fries ... i was going to lose it....

as we drove by MCDs i told them the Nugget truck didnt deliver to any of the stores in the area... and they didnt have any french fries...

my husband who was driving muttered something about me going to a special circle in He@@ for fibbing to the kids... as i never lie. like never.

[DiamondLil]

When my 24 and 22 year old kids were 5 & 3, I had them convinced the smoke stack at the local pulp & paper mill was a cloud factory.

[Tweets77]

When my now adult daughter was twelve she wanted boobs desperately. I told her to eat her veggies as it would make them grow. (She believed me for about 15 minutes).

[abbasgirl]

I remember getting out of bed one night when I was a little girl to find my mom calmly watching a hockey game. She has never had any interest in sports whatsoever, so I wonder what she was actually watching.

[DiamondLil]

When my now adult daughter was twelve she wanted boobs desperately. I told her to eat her veggies as it would make them grow. (She believed me for about 15 minutes).

A lie my mother told me when I was 4 was that if I kept drinking tea my boobs would grow (I was a little tea drinker). That was terrifying (who wants boobs in kindergarten - LOL) but it didnt stop me from drinking tea.

[Natalka]

Told our son when he was about three that if he ate his rice his hair would turn black like his dad. He believed that for a very long time.


One of my husband's face meals is chicken livers, so he had taught me how to make them the way he likes. I just can't stand liver, beef or chicken - though I love the smell of it cooking.

Our son never figured out until he was an adult, why I would always have something different for supper - usually I would say there were some leftovers that needed to be eaten.

So now, he totally loves chicken livers! He was rather floored when he found out about me.

[DiamondLil]

When my kids were young, they would sometimes accompany my husband when he drove me to work (we had one vehicle so it made sense for him to help out). We had to cross a bridge in our commute to get to my office, so sometimes my hubby would tell the kids "we have to cross mom's bridge to pick her up". For years the kids believed I owned the bridge and often referred to it as Mom's Bridge. I didnt know about this until a few years ago when they laughed and said to each other remember when we thought this was mom's bridge? LOL!!!!!

[Threadripper]

I try not to lie to my son. He supposed to be prepared for life.

[DiamondLil]

I try not to lie to my son. He supposed to be prepared for life.

I try not to lie to my kids, but sometimes, especially when I want to spare them from some ugliness, I have lied to them. As for some of the others, they were a product of an overactive imagination. But for the important things, I have been honest with them. And for the truly important things, like promises, I have been true to my word!!!

Its been difficult at times, especially when they were little and they asked about Santa (they were satisfied when I explained Santa is the spirit of Christmas and giving) but even with this I didnt lie to them and say he was real, that the older kids in school were lying when they told the younger kids that parents were Santa. We all want to prepare our children for life and harsh realities, but we dont (I hope) want to kill their innocence and their "inner children" in the process.