Let’s face it, parents are liars. Wait, what?! Yes, I said it, parents are liars. Now you may be reading this thinking how dare I say something like that?! Well, let me explain what I mean. I am a mother of two boys and I have to say, as much as I hate to admit it, I find myself preaching about truth and yet, I occasionally tell them small lies to save face or feelings. Now listen, I am not talking about the same type of lies that our children tell us. (Lying to parents is bad!) I am talking about lies that are used as a tactic of reasoning.

Take for instance, having to explain to a young child why they did not get an XBOX in their Easter Basket like the kid across the street did when they got socks, jelly beans, and a movie. Or how about telling a small child that you can’t go play outside with them because it’s too cold for Moms? I will not touch on the whole “Holiday Traditional Lies”, we already can agree that the majority of us do it. We do it for traditions and for the kids to believe in something magical. The world, after all, is a scary place, so why not give them a little fun? Telling your child their artwork is amazing when everything looks like lines and blobs is something that many parents lie about. Not me though, my children have been actually very artistic since they were very small. You have got to be a pretty mean person to break a child’s spirit. Have you ever seen the movie “Liar Liar”? Telling the truth isn’t always a good thing.

When does a lie go too far though? My neighbor is really good for lying to her kids. Surprisingly enough, she is a very religious person, so it is kind of ironic. I will never forget when her son was really young, I’d say about 6 or 7 years old, he asked her what a lesbian was. Well, not wanting to have that conversation with her child just yet she lied and said it was “A woman that wasn’t married.” Now that may seem harmless to some of you. I personally thought she should have been very vague but truthful, even if she was uncomfortable. After her explanation, her son mentions me and one of his teachers and she says “Yes. Yes, they are both lesbians.” Now don’t get your panties in a bunch, I wasn’t mad about being called a lesbian, I was now uncomfortable because when he asked me, I had to lie! I do not like to lie, but in this case, it was not my place to be truthful with her son. As parents, telling a little lie to our children for reasons stated above is one thing, but now forcing someone else to lie to your kid is just…well not what I have in mind. The good thing about her lie is that she gave me a warning, the teacher didn’t have the same courtesy. OOOPS! We all laugh about this to this day.

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