Is it just me, or are half of these just people being shitty parents, as well as shitty people?

A lot of these are just lazy. I mean ... your kids do trust you, don't they? You expect them to obey your rules, to tell you when they encounter problems outside, ... lying to them shouldn't be a daily habit, but kept for very rare moments where they really can't handle the truth. It simply isn't ok. Also, don't we have a huge global outbreak of facts-deniery at the moment? Where does it come from that reality is a mere opinion in a lot of people's view? How honest were the parents of that incel with the horn helmet? Did he mess up his mind totally on his own, or may it be that he had a mother who resorted to lies whenever stuff was unfomfortable? Also - if you're uncomfortable telling your children what you do, it likely is wrong anyway, so instead of lying yourself out of the trouble, you can do yourself out of trouble. By not doing what is embarrassing to admit to your kids.

Some of the "Lies" are not to be taken seriously. Some are lazy, irresponsible parenting and some are cruel. This represents deep character flaws.

I love how some people are using Santa Claus as a response to those calling out the horribly lazy parents who refuse to raise their children with discipline and integrity. There is a huge difference between using lies to avoid proper parenting and continuing a lovely innocent tradition that everyone appreciates so much that they carry it on with their own children. For those deliberately obtuse who point out Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, etc: Go suck a rock.

Parents lie because sometimes explaining does not work with the kids. Kids may deny any reasonable arguments. And I know many adults who wouldn't buckle up although they know it saves life.

Long before Walmart and Target, we had to go to a toy store (FAO SCHWARTZ, Toys R Us) for toys and gifts. I convinced my kids that those places were museums and we couldn't touch, just look!

The only lie I ever told my kids was about lying.....They thought their tongues turned green if they lied. I would get them to stick their tongue out when I knew one was lying, the child that refused to stick it out was lying. I don't feel bad in the slightest, they are honest teens now and even I get surprised at the things they own up too so I guess it worked. Oops actually 2 lies, my son believed for ages that I was batman. The secret being that batman is really a woman which is why we had to keep it a secret. He believed it for about a year when he was 5-6 lol.

Times have truly changed. I think for the better. My parents rarely needed to lie. It's either do as you're told or some form of pain is in your immediate future.

Laughing hysterically at the non-parents who judge parents for lying to their kids. Presumably, the same non-parents who judge us for feeding our kids junk food. If you ever have kids, you're in for quite a shock lol.

Our family tradition is the "liar's spot". My mom told me If I lied a green spot would appear on my forehead. But I could not see it because it was invisible to children and only adults could see it.... I realised how easy it was to spot a lie when years later my niece always came with a hand on her forehead to cover the "spot" so we would not Catch her lying. (It looked adorable but I never did it with my kid. I remember feeling stupid when I understood as a kindergarten age my mom was lying about it....did not want my daughter to feel this way).