Parenting like.... Pinocchio!!

I was reading a 'mommy' forum on facebook the other day and this question was asked: 
What lies do you tell your kids?


More than one person said that they did not lie to their children. Oh... that is SO noble!! But it is bull honky! We all lie to our kids. No, we do not tell them lies like, "Mommy weighs 105lbs" and "Mommy never had sex before marriage." That is just silly. ;-) But we totally lie to our kids. I could not even answer that question because the asker was like, "One answer please." And I was like.... No Way. I cannot give you ONE answer.... I tell Elleah so many lies that I could blog about it. So here I am....


First of all, I lie to Elleah when she wants to wear something like a coat to the park on a 100 degree day. She does not care if it is too hot, so I tell her it is dirty. She grasps that concept of it being dirty, so I just lie. :-) 


She thinks cereal is cookies. So if you are ever around her and she asks for cookies, she is not trying to tell you to go whip up some oatmeal-chocolate chips. She is tell you to pour her a bowl of cheerios. And I did not technically teach her this.... but I lie by omission because I never tell her that cereal is not cookies. To me, it is quite ok if she thinks this. 


If we are in the car and I cannot fathom listening to the same episode of Dora or Blue Clue's again, I lie and tell her the DVD player broke. She just goes, "Broke? Oh. Ok." She is happy, I am happy.... its all good. 


I tell her that my cola is icky. It is NOT icky. lol. (see my old post about cola here - and for those of you following along, the answer is NO, I did not stick to this resolution, I suck, oh well). But when Elleah says, "I want mommy's juice." I lie and tell her it is icky. 


Lets not even get me started on Santa and the Easter bunny.... (a perfectly safe lie that helps create wonder and excitement)


Lying to our kids is ok. Small fibs will not emotionally damage kids.  We are not distorting their future and eroding their reality!!! We lie to them to encourage them to try new things, to NOT do certain questionable things, and to minimize a BIG explanation that they will not understand into a smaller one that they can comprehend. So imo, those mommies that said they do not lie to their kids.... they were probably LYING. haha. 


As Elleah grows and learns, the lies will fade away.... BUT I kinda can't wait until I get to use the ol' "eyes in the back of my head" lie, the "store ran out of toys" lie, and the "it is bed time" lie (a lie because it would be after i secretly set all the clocks back an hour). 


PS-I am 74.7% sure my mom still tells me lies like these. Harmless, but sometimes necessary!