Lying to Children

[Rachman Crable]

Every parent has lied or heard lies told to children about eating all their vegetables or drinking all their milk, or they wouldn't grow as kids that do. Or telling kids to put their recently pulled teeth under the pillow for the "Tooth Fairy." Or "Santa Claus" only brings gifts for those boys and girls who have been good. For the most part these lies are very harmless, but can they sometimes hurt the relationship between you and your child? As parents, we stress "honesty is the best policy", to our kids. What if your child finds out something you told them wasn't true and questioned why you lied to them after telling them lying was wrong. It could change their belief in what you say is good or bad for them. Worse yet, they could go to someone else, receive good or misinformation and believe that to be true over you. That could seriously damage, not only your credibility, but the bonding that needs to take place between parents and their kids. We can lie as parents when the situation calls for, but our children are told that it's wrong in all situations. Do you think it is okay to send these mixed messages to kids?

[Pat hopson]

This is a tough situation. Lying is lying know matter how pretty it is wrapped up. Honesty is the best policy. We have always, as parents, tried to leave an opening to rectify fables,myths,fantasia, fairy tales and all of the childhood things that goes along with this culture. If you only give young children ages,six mouth to four years old, black and white concepts on all thing you may hinder their mental growth of imagination and dreams.
There are sets of people who believe in doing this, but they usually keep to themselves apart from our culture and make beliefs or they are from differ places in the world with their own cultural background or beliefs. Now morals and morality are totally different topics. There safety issue in these areas! There is no room in these areas to lie. These are just my thought

[Orit Pennington]

There is lying and there is "white lies". I teach my kids the difference. In the 10 commandments it says: "Do not bear a false witness". False witness means - do not ever say anything that can cause someone else harm. I teach my kids the difference between causing harm to telling a white lie. White lie is actually the exact opposite of bearing false witness. We tell white lies to make life a little more pleasant for other people. Here is the examples I use. Lie - (i.e. False witness) is when I ask who left the water running in the kitchen and you tell me your sister did it. You are telling me that because you want her to get in trouble, instead of admitting to the truth. Your lie can hurt her. On the other hand, White lie - you are visiting a friend, his mom invited you to dinner and the food is horrible. You say: thank you so much, the food was good, but I am not very hungry. You may be starving - but you should not say: the food is so bad, I cannot eat it.
Teach your kids about what to do, instead of what NOT to do: Tell the truth, as long as it does not hurt anybody. Be nice to people. take responsibility for what you have done, etc. etc. - Just my 2 cents.