According to a Redbook study, 84 percent of readers admit to lying to their kids at least once per month.
Experts weigh in on some "acceptable" lies. I can understand some of them, like telling the kids that Daddy's office is closed rather than explain that he got laid off. But I can't get behind lies that are so clearly over the top, like telling a child that if he doesn't stop sucking his thumb it will fall off. I know that would scare the bejeezus out of my thumb-sucking 4-year-old. But it probably wouldn't get him to stop.
Redbook readers wrote in with their own craziest lies. Some of them are a bit outrageous, like the mother who told her son that if he kept kicking the seat on the airplane, the pilot would throw the boy off without a parachute (she acknowleged her temporary insanity). Or the family who set all the clocks on the second floor ahead one hour so they could start the bedtime routine earlier (why not just change the bedtime?).
But this one, from Welmoed Sisson of Gaithersburg, MD, made me laugh--and even inspired me:
"Whenever I heard the telltale click of one of my kids unbuckling their car seat harnesses, I would pull over to the side of the road and kill the engine. I would say aloud, 'gosh, I wonder what's wrong wtih the car.' I would peer into the back seat. 'Did one of you unbuckle your car seat? Ah, that's it! The engine won't work if the seat belt isn't buckled!' I would snap the buckles, turn the key, and off we'd go! From then on, my kids were convinced the car wouldn't work if their seat belts weren't fastened."
I might just have to give that one a try.
What's the craziest lie you ever told your kids?
Related Posts:
