Lying to Children

I was noodling about on Reddit and read an article about Anthony Bourdain making purposefully gross food and putting it into McDonalds packaging to get his daughter to dislike McDonalds.A commenter then said something along the lines that if you lie to your children, you're a shit parent and your kids will figure out you were a shit parent who lied instead of teaching them real things (paraphrased). OP commented something along the lines of "Yup. Religion in a nutshell." (Daaaamn)But before that sentiment got derailed... I was kinda like... wait... what?See, i told eldest at 3 that if he was quiet and observant, he might see a dinosaur or wild pokemon (things he was into) in the forests of Ontario. That was a Montreal-Edmonton bus ride and he survived! Mostly because he spent hours just intently watching out the windows. He saw bear. Moose. Deer. Some were even alive!I told a lot of lies like that. All the time.But I've also met parents who won't even do Santa or the Easter Bunny because its "lies".And what about that savage religion comment? What about things YOU believe, that others believe are lies? Is the lady who adopts a 9yo who just lost his parents that they are burning in eternal torment because they never married or went to church being a "good parent by telling the truth" simply because she believes it?What about the shit we tell kids that's just wrong? When I was a kid Pluto was a planet. My older kids started school thinking that there were 9 planets in our solar system, because that's what I had been taught.It's a sticky wicket, isnt it? I liked my lies. I thought they were lovely. I never told ugly lies, even when they were self-serving and prevented me from going stir crazy and throttling a 3yo on a 3 day cross country bus trip.They always grow out of the lies. It always gets to the point where they just squint at you and say, "You think you're so smart, Mom. I know what you're trying to do." Sigh. But I swear there is TOTALLY a sense of accomplishment and quiet pride in getting the kitchen clean! I SWEAR IM NOT MAKING IT UP. Oh well, I tried. But we still have to clean the kitchen.My oldest son is 21 now. He's told me that there was a period of time (basically preschool) where the world was truly a magical place. With fairies and gnomes sneaking about just out of sight behind flowers. Where Mom could talk to squirrels and the "tch tch tch" noise that I taught him was squirrel for "I've got a nice peanut for you". That trees were deep slow thinkers and watched over us. That they were listening to him when he talked to them.Discovering the world is a little more prosaic than that, he didn't mind it because it wasnt like "LIES!!" - It was more like it doesn't matter if there are fairies or not or the trees might not even know you're there because you don't really get to interact with them very meaningfully anyway.I don't really think I damaged them. I don't think it's as black and white as lies=evil. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2FtCGsC