Mumsnet Talk

My DD (6) tells me I make the "best spaghetti in the world". If only she knew I use wholewheat spaghetti and quorn mince. She also could'nt believe her luck that I made her beefburgers for dinner last week (yup veggie).
She used to eat such a wide variety of foods too. So while we get through this stage I will lie and grate vegetables into all the sauces and soups. It is either that or she gets scurvy.

I convinced ds1 that milk was "cream-flavoured milkshake". He believed it until he was about 6 and would drink gallon of the stuff.

I must do a search then cortana!

Exactly blueberry.

It is a wonderful thread Kitty good for a giggle regardless of your views on children and white lies and half truths.

That particular one refers to what a poster's Mother told her was the call of the Pinemartin. Apparently it was believed for quite a while!

Kitty, the picking your battles bit is my motto.

Along with, its only a phase....

I understand what you mean, I can also see TheCortanas view, if that is what it takes to get a balanced diet, I'll do it.

Thanks for understanding cortana .Marty? Do I need to read the thread?

Good question blueberry . I'll be honest with you, I will feel very uncomfortable lying to my daughter about anything but I don't want to rob her of the magic of Christmas. I imagine there will be other times I'll have to break my own rule but I want to choose my battles carefully.

I can see where you're coming from Kitty, I just think most of the little lies are just lighthearted ways of dealing with some of the tougher parts of parenting. "Yes, it's chicken" and having a wee giggle about it here.

Plus I think my DS gets more from his varied diet and adventurous attitude to food than he would from a parent who had never told a porky, ever.

There's a great thread somewhere with lies our parents told us. And it is looked back on with good humour and clearly didn't leave anyone with trust issues or lasting damage. MARTY MARTY MARTY!

I tell DS, 2 yo that it is 'pirate pasta', pirate hash', pirate meatballs - you get the idea. It seems to work.

Kitty - where do you stand on Father Christmas? I'm keeping that one going, for me it is part of the magic of Christmas when they are little.

Does anyone else eat sweets in party bags, for their own good? Or is it just me?

But I don't want her to be one of them, cortana

I also want her to be able to trust what I say. It's a big thing for me. I'm surprised that I seem to be in the minority though.

I still have to do this with DH. He won't eat stew but he loves casserole

Maybe that not everyone tells the truth all of the time Kitty?

I'm afraid I don't agree with lying to children-not even to try to dupe them into eating. What example is it giving to my daughter if I lie to her but expect her to tell the truth to me?

After an initial lead balloon moment I'm furiously taking notes.

We told our son that the ice cream van only plays it's tune when it has run out of ice cream. He is 7 now and doesn't believe a word we say. Good job really, because we tell him all sorts of amusing fibs.....

OP, there will be a definite moment sometime quite soon when your DS suddenly realises that you have chocolate and he has a rice cracker. He will let you know that he knows. Loudly. After that you will forever more have to hide away to eat your chocolate, or give him a bit. Until then, I say continue to lie. We got 2yo DS to eat sprouts one Christmas by telling him they were "green meatballs". Only worked the one year though.

I did this with dd2 and was caught out by her when she requested that next time I need 'chicken' I send her older sister to buy it because the chicken I buy looked, smelled and tasted like mushrooms. She wasn't sure if I knew what chicken was and was quite concerned that the butcher was pulling a fast one on me

Just wait until hes two and you have to agree with him that everything is chicken nuggets.

I wouldnt care, except we very very rarely eat chicken nuggets!

He's six months old. I was being risible (although not terribly effectively, obviously).

My mum used to tell me that green beans which she'd cut into strips with that gadget (I know there's a name for that, which has escaped me) was 'green spaghetti' because I was a spaghetti fiend. I can remember loathing them but forcing a look of enjoyment onto my face for fear that she'd stop giving me the white spaghetti if I admitted a dislike for the green version.

Why lie? Like Kitty, I just don't get it.

It will never work- DCs do as you do and not as you say. If you want your DC on a healthy diet you have to have one yourself. The only message that he will get is that doughnuts are nice food, something to aim for as soon as he is able to escape the rice cake regime and that rice cakes are not- otherwise you would be eating them.

Back in the day, when on holiday in Spain, we told out the 2 years-old DD that crispy octopus legs were, in fact, chips.

She still loves sea food, and tucked in to raw oysters, clams etc. at 4.

Now she is older we have warned her off the octopuses in the rocks at the bottom of our road - they are blue-ringed, and can seriously inconvenience your health.

I told my oldest that every meat was called Meat, and all sauces were gravy. He would eat anything so long as I called it meat and gravy.
With Dd we use Spanish names for things she has taken a dislike to, and then she suddenly likes them So meatballs have to be called Albondigas and she loves them, just don't let her see the pack in the freezer.

I told DD that every meat item she ate was 'sausage' when she went through a stage where she would only eat sausage. Shepherds pie=sausage, chicken=sausage, beef stew=sausage etc

Mind you I learned from a true master (mistress?). After telling her I didn't eat chicken, my aunty presented me with 'oud en' which I wolfed down. Took her months to admit 'oud en' was in fact old hen, or chicken

If you did this when he's older he would,I expect,have the idea reinforced that doughnuts and pizza are nice food and healthy food isn't nice.

So I wouldn't let myself get into a habit of it while he's too young to understand.