I’ll start;
You can do/be anything you want.
Bullies are just cowards.
There is someone out there for everyone.
They’re just jealous.
My wife and I have a policy to never lie to our kids, but I’ll share some I’ve heard.
- Santa is real
- Santa says you have to be ____ years old to have that toy
- Easter Bunny is real
- Cheaters never prosper
- The horsey is broken(they have this horse at Meijer kids can ride)
The family cat/dog/bunny/turtle/goldfish ran away to join the circus. (Ok not so much the last two, but…)
Eat it, it’s just chicken. (What, “just like” chicken isn’t close enough?)
Your aunt isn’t crazy, she just hates all children.
Walt
I agree with the “You can be anything you want.” I tell my students it’s a lie. As a 5’4" 120 lb woman, I don’t see myself as an NBA player or NFL player no matter how I try. Nor will the College of Cardinals be electing me Pope anytime soon.
This won’t hurt a bit.
What comes around goes around.
You’ll grow into your features and be good-looking later.
People with college degrees get good jobs
If you ignore bullies, they’ll get bored and go away
You *want *to be those things?
We can do that tomorrow.
I try really hard not to tell these kinds of lies to my kids. One I hear a lot that makes me want to punch the parent though, is: If you don’t come here right now, I’m leaving without you!
Hey, lady, guess what? Not only will you not leave your kid, but your kid knows it! :smack:
As far as mythical characters like Santa, The Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc. I play along while they’re young. When they get old enough to question, though, I’ll just say something like “Well, do you want it to be real? OK, then for now, it can be real”.
“Right now are the best years of your life.” - Something that is not a good thing to tell a kid who’s already depressed, I can say from personal experience. You might be intending to tell them their present problems are no big deal and they should buck up, but what they’ll hear is that you are saying that their future holds nothing but misery; that their life is only going to go from bad to worse.
God never closes a door without opening a window.
Lord help me, Der Trihs, you’ve said something I agree with 100%!
In fact, I wrote a poem (I’m very amateur at poetry, which is why I never post it on these boards when we have ‘contests’ and such) when I was about 17, all about how, when you’re a kid, adults will tell you “These are the best years of your life! Enjoy it while you can!”
Oh yeah? Guess what? Now, as an adult, I’m not being systematically sexually or emotionally abused. I’m not helpless to control my situation. I am in a happy, loving relationship; I do have children that I can influence in a positive manner. I am worth more than just being a wife and mother. I can run a business.
So everyone who tells kids ‘these are the best years of your life’, cut it out! Even if the kid has a great life, that doesn’t mean their adult-hood can’t be at least as good, maybe better.
Now, of course, all my kids (at one time or another) have come to me and said something like “Wow, being a grownup must be great! You get to do whatever you want, whenever you want!” and I have to explain to them that it’s a trade-off. Yeah, you get to make your own rules, but then you are the one who has to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do. Still, though, given the choice between my adult-hood and my childhood, I’ll take adult any day of the week!
Well, I tell the kids I do. Another lie for them.
The family cat/dog/bunny/turtle/goldfish ran away to join the circus. (Ok not so much the last two, but…)
Eat it, it’s just chicken. (What, “just like” chicken isn’t close enough?)
Ha, that first part brought back some memories! We had barn cats (since my mom hated litter boxes) and they were always “running away”. One day I was reminiscing about a cat I had that “ran away” and my little brother said, “You mean the one mom ran over?” I was about sixteen when it happened, and I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t just tell me she ran it over, since it was an accident. Then I found out that 90% of the pets I thought “ran away”, were just killed in tragic mishaps and no one wanted to tell me!
“He/she is only picking on you because they like you.”
Right. Or they’re just a bully.
We really tried not to lie to our kids—and mostly succeeded. There was one implicit lie. If we told them to go up to their room for a timeout and they didn’t go, we started to count to ten. They always went. We had nothing in mind for ten. We have since asked them what they thought was coming. They had no idea, but took the counting as a sign we were really serious.
I have to say they were real good kids. And successful adults and parents too. I wish we could bottle it and sell it, whatever we did right. Make us rich.
Not technically a lie, but:
“We’ll buy Daughter a Horse at the same time we buy Son an airplane”
For years, the children told that believed that one day (not neccessarily soon) they would own a horse and an airplane. In fact, there was never any intent to buy either.
Money isn’t everything.
You have a right not to be bullied.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
One person really can make a difference.
Do what you love and the money will follow.
Money isn’t everything.
Personally, I don’t think this is a lie. Money really isn’t everything. Being poor certainly sucks (been there, done that, don’t care to do it again), but some people (not just children) seem to think that if you have enough money, you will never have any more problems. Having money will not solve all of your problems.