Lies we tell our children . . .

[Chipsycheese]

We sometimes tell our children big white lies to scare encourage them into behaving well.
For example in half term I pointed to a nursery and told them thats a prison for naughty children, who were too loud during the school holidays. The small children with their faces pressed up against the window only made my story more convincing.
I told them a monster (who lives in the woods near the campsite where we go on holiday) only eats children who eat too many sweets.
I told them our (non existent) friend Burt died when his head sadly fell off as he did not eat vegetables.
Burt suffered a extreme range of injuries and accidents and now I think about it his death has varied a lot, his head exploded from too much xbox, his eyes dried up and rolled out from too much tv - depending on what the children are doing.

Does anyone else do this? AIBU?
If so, what stories do you tell them?
I would just like to add my children are happy and normal and have friends etc! They do not really seem scared of anything!

Your tongue will turn blue and fall off if you lick things - also worked when dd2 started biting!

The park/ beach is closing now

If you go to the bottom of the garden (where the bins are kept) there are BIG bugs that eat children.

I tell them the truth with most things tho, like your teeth will go black if you don't brush them and use MIL as an example! Its a win win

And don't forget the oldest lie in the book, if you wee in the swimming pool the water will turn purple!

Dh does this sometimes. Drives me mad. I don't like lying to ds, not the sort of lies that scare him into behaving anyway.

Too many to mention all of them - but here goes:

1. I have eyes in the back of my head. All mums get them when they are in hospital having a baby.

2. You have to be 15 to have coca cola

3. You have to be 15 to have an XBox

4. There is a crocodile in the garage that eats children's feet. So don't go in there and rifle through everything just to find your garden toys.

5. Along with eyes in the back of your head. All mums get given the telephone numbers for Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy whilst in hosptial after having a baby. I then phone up Father Christmas when they are naughty - clearly this works well in October - December.

6. You get superpowers when you are 13, just as puberty starts. They haven't asked me what puberty is, they are more interested in what superpowers they will have. I say I don't know, could be flying, strength, xray vison, but if you are really naughty you don't get any. I was really naughty.

I actually think the world is a worse place for children since the decline in popularity of cautionary tales, and that is basically what the little White lies are.
Children have way to big a sense of self importance these days, and a lack of fear that anything bad might happen to them. Its the small worries that kept them safe in the days before helicopter parenting and the nanny state.