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Parents Lie to Kids All the Time: Study

Nearly 80% of parents acknowledged fibbing to kids

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 29, 2009 2:19 PM CDT

(Newser) – Parents lie to their children, even while telling them that lying is wrong, so often it surprised researchers, a new study reveals. Presented with a list of seven hypothetical lies—such as “the police will come if you don't stop crying now” or “you did a good job at cleaning up your room”—nearly 80% of parents said they had told at least one similar falsehood.

And the parents may be fibbing on that as well—90% of undergrads in the sample reported hearing their parents tell a lie similar to one of the seven, LiveScience reports. The parents admitted to sending mixed messages: Though they acknowledged telling lies, more than 70% said they teach their children that lying is unacceptable.

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Students at Lamar Elementary in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District walk home following classes in Del Rio, Texas, Monday, Sept. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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Our findings showed that even the parents who most strongly promoted the importance of honesty with their children engaged in parenting by lying.
- Kang Lee, University of Toronto

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 8 comments

Snarfeh

Sep 30, 2009 12:20 PM CDT

I'm not a parent, but my nephew, at the age of nine, asked me why are we all here if we're just gonna die one day. I almost shat my pants. I told him we were here to stop repubilcans from ruining the world. Ok, ok, sorry, sorry...what I *really* told him was the story of Pandora's Box. I don't know why it popped in my head, but it did. I added some of my special brand of 19 years old sage wisdom to the discussion, but I actually think the story of Pandora worked for the moment. However, today, he's addicted to crack, on disability and smells bad. Guess he didn't have any hope left in his box....

professortech

Sep 30, 2009 4:51 AM CDT

What a worthless study. As a parent of four children and an educator for over 20 years it is blatantly obvious that Parents/adults routinely shade the truth to help protect children and preserve their innocence. Many times young children ask questions that they are not able to fully comprehend the answers to. As parents/adults we give them the answer that in many cases they (and we) are able to handle, at that time. The inference that parents should be 100% truth telling machines to every childhood question is as ridiculous an idea as “just because a child is big enough to reach the gas pedal and the steering wheel we should let them drive the car”. Some "truths" need emotional maturity to be understood. At the same time we must also work not to give them a totally false construction that keeps them from accepting the “realities” of the universe at the proper time i.e. stork and babies vs reproduction, creationism/ID vs Evolution, etc.

my-name-here

Sep 29, 2009 8:57 AM CDT

LOL, good banter!

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parenting • children • parents • research • childhood • lies

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Parents Lie to Kids All the Time: Study