She didn't eat her broccoli

I don’t know what parent hasn’t told a lie to their children. As awful as it may sound, I think there are different categories of lies- some not so bad and others probably more so. I need to use the white lie to my kids probably on a daily basis, in some form or another. I convince myself that they are more like a motivator to get them going, or to stop them from doing something. Should they be called lies or just bending the truth a little?

After talking to a few of my friends, I have compiled the following  list. It is an arsenal of lies that are typically used in rotation:

1. Eat your broccoli or you will grow a mustache.
2. The bathroom is closed right now, you will need to wait until we get home.
3. The indoor playground is only open on certain days ( I pick the days).
4. Brush your teeth, you don’t want to wake up in the morning with them all rotten.
5. The cd player is broken I need to get it fixed.
6. We can’t have a playdate because XYZ friend is away for the weekend- I talked to their mom.
7. If you don’t go to sleep, the tooth fairy won’t come visit ( Santa too, and the Easter bunny).
8. If you pee in the pool the water will change color and everyone will know.
9. When you kids go to bed Daddy and Mommy have a party.
10. If you drink mommys ice coffee the bottom of your feet with turn black.
11. I have no idea where your Hannah Montanna CD is.
12. If you eat a watermelon seed a plant will grow in your belly.
13. If you don’t go to sleep you won’t grow.
14. No, I don’t have any cash right now.
15. Yes, you would be awesome on American Idol ( fingers crossed).
16. If you continue to suck your thumb you will get a canker sore.

I have to laugh because I will never forgive my mother for telling me that there wasn’t a raw egg in caesar salad. It wasn’t until my 20′s that I found out there was !!! She laughs about it, because she said I would not have tried it otherwise. My mom also let me eat calamari when I was 7 ( told me it was something else) and when found out it was squid I vomited, but I do love it now.

I have to say that none of the white lies that I was told as a kid impacted me in a negative way as an adult, and I see why we need to use them. Sometimes basic logic doesn’t work, such as green leafy vegetables are good for you, so you need add a bit of a spin to it. Or, you are in a rush and the third trip to the bathroom is not an option, so its amazingly is closed.

I don’t feel guilty about “not telling the truth”, I think its a sort or unspoken parenting tip that we all don’t discuss, yet everyone does it. Does that make me a bad mom? I tell my kids that they need to be honest and truthful, yet I don’t always follow that rule. I can only hope that they don’t end up on a therapists couch, addicted to electrolysis because they are fearful of the mustache that they think they are going to grow.