Be honest, do you lie about your children's age to save money?

[TheCatSitterDM]

I'm fully expected to get roasted and called all sorts of names but who here tells little white lies about their children's age to save money?

My DS was quite short, so I got away with him being 4 (and therefore free) on the bus until he was nearly 7 and it became obvious he was older after a growth spirt.

And this half term, I said my DD was 3 (not 4) to save money on her admission to swimming.

YABU - You're alway honest about your children's age
YANBU - You tell the occasion fib to save some £ here and there

I had a tall child and a short one, but would never have got away with anything like that because of their big gobs! 🤣 Both were very articulate little girls, and my youngest would actually say, "hi, I'm Lala and I'm one". They would definitely have dropped me in it if I got their age wrong!

Yes I do occasionally, in particular at a buffet restaurant we go to sometimes where the child price is applied only to those aged 10 and under. Children aged 11+ are considered adult and charged accordingly, which is an extra £10 on the child price. I think this is ridiculous and will be passing my kids off as 10 years old for as long as I can get away with it! I don’t feel guilty given they mostly just eat a couple of bread rolls, ham and cucumber with the occasional chicken skewer and ice cream for pudding!

No, I can guarantee I have never done this. My father used to do it to me all the time and I hated it. Somehow it felt like a put down when I wanted to be all grown up. When I got to about 15 and he started it again I started reacting when he asked at the counters, "What age is a child?" When they said 14 and under, I knew he'd tell them I was 14, so I used to say, "Bad luck that I'm 15 Dad." He got really mad at first but it felt like I was being insulted and belittled.

Yeh I used to when ds2 was little. He looked very young for his age.

You asked if the poster was on benefits, then launched into "If you are in receipt of benefits...."

If it was about the moral high ground of not lying to businesses about children's ages, what does it matter where the money came from?

I didn't misconstrue a damned thing.

My Mum did that on the bus, under 5 were free. As we went past my school I’d shout ‘that my school’ and she’d say loudly ‘yes, next year!’

not for things like altan towers etc as I think in general showing children it's OK to lie to get what you want isnt a good thing. I did however say my 12 year old was 11 on Saturday (not within her hearing) as we went to a country show and 11 and under went free but 12 and over had to pay adult price and it irked me.

If companies have frequently ripped you off, scammed you or short-changed you, why on earth would you choose to go back there and give them your custom at all?

I presume you aren't meaning that because X company has scammed you, you feel entitled to seek redress from Y company? If somebody ran past me in the street and stole my phone, I obviously wouldn't think that entitled me to go and swipe some other random person's phone as 'recompense'.

You should feel bad! You are a thief. Some people are so morally corrupt it's astonishing! This is why we everything has to be policed so much which adds even more on to the prices of everything for everyone else.

People said it would be a bad example!

As with so many things in life, because so many people are dishonest, the honest people have to suffer and lose out.

It's because of shoplifters that I have to wait for the assistant to come and verify me as not a thief in Morrison's when I need to pay for things in two separate transactions, or because I have my own bag or a free local paper in the trolley that the camera has picked up and assumed 'thief'. Meanwhile, the actual thieves don't go anywhere near the tills in the first place - they just fill up their hold-alls, walk right out unchallenged and get away with it without any inconvenience at all.

In the same way, businesses will assume that a great many people will be lying to avoid paying for their kids, so they will deliberately set their age limits artificially low. Say if they need to charge from age 6, they will say that kids under 4 are free, giving a 2-year free buffer zone for the liars, so the end result is the same and they do end up paying from 6 years.

Meanwhile, the parents who are not thieves or liars will see the sign, pay as appropriate according to the actual age of their kids, and then end up paying for an extra 2 years.

I used to have to take youngest DD's birth certificate with me on days out as she was so tall! No one would believe she was 2 even from her vocabulary. Drove me mad.

Absolutely. Retail and hospitality involve selling either goods or services, or a mixture of the two. Both of these are fully legitimate things for people to expect to be able to sell in order to earn money - as long as potential customers are given a price and can legitimately decide not to pay that price and thus not benefit from the goods or services on offer if they can't afford it or don't think it's worth it to them.

Nobody would be saying that a solicitor, GP, bus driver, teacher, MoT mechanic or accountant shouldn't expect people to pay them - on the basis that they are 'only' providing you with a service and/or use of their facilities as opposed to handing over tangible goods for you to take away with you in exchange for the money that you've paid them.

Yeah this. Not worth the threat to my career over poor integrity. Can understand the appeal though

Why didn't you just buy a railcard and get an honest discount like most other people do? Aside from the fact that it is dishonest and fare dodgers contribute to the high cost of rail travel you must have been taking a significant risk of being fined, especially once you were in your 20s. I'd have been in a state of continual anxiety about being caught.

Pfft, chance would be a fine thing. DD is on the tall side of average but would have piped up correcting me if I gave her wrong age. DS would happily be a co-conspirator but unfortunately he is massive. We've just come back from disney, he is 9 so he was automatically on the child dining plan. Most of the servers were giving me the complete side eye because he's taller than DD who is 11 and on the adult one.

It’s not morally corrupt? Financially corrupt, yes. I still paid for a ticket, just not full price… especially seeing you could never get a seat anyway it seems like literal money down the drain. The train prices are extortionate and it’s not do with the few that don’t pay full price. They’re not as expensive in Europe- they live to hike prices whenever they can for the train drivers that want a bigger salary

When is was 19 i went to London with my sister, I look and act younger than I am. She decided let's see what i pass for. And yes deliberately lied and said I was 14 to get on a few exhibits for having a child.
So yes.
We do

I got kids for a quid tickets for years on the trains after my kids were older than 16. Frequently checked by inspectors who never queried it as we were clearly a family group. If they travel on their own they use their railcard. I don't feel bad about it due to the shit service that should be renationalised, overpricing to oay rich shareholders, and the fact that on principle I don't see why children aged 16-18 who are legally obliged to be in full time education shouldn't be charged child rate.They are unable to work more than a few hours a week and it's 90% of the time the parents paying for them. Adult rate should be for adults.

The main reason that train services are cheaper in Europe is because they are massively subsidised by the taxpayer. Of course as a tourist you will simply experience this as cheaper fares but the reality is that the citizens of the countries are still paying a lot for the train service. It's like suggesting the NHS or schools are 'free'. They are simply funded differently.

Private companies running train companies often make very small profits, often only a few pence per journey. Nationalisation won't dramatically lower fares. Tacking the unions would help but it is tricky to do and wouldn't dramatically lower prices anyway

I think you actually have no idea how much a train ticket should be. You just know what you would like it to be which is the equivalent of highly subsidised services elsewhere in the world. It's unrealistic and crap justification for stealing. If you went to a shop, got six apples in a bag and told the shopkeeper you had only five because you unilaterally decided apples shouldn't be so expensive then would you see that this is stealing? Is it just transport or experiences that you think have voluntary pricing structures where you just pay whatever you fancy?

It's not money savvy, it's fraud. My husband comes from a family who boast about getting things for free (fraudulently) wherever they can. I never know where to look when they do because I just can't understand the thinking. One time I was at PIL's house and they were saying how they got someone in to design a fireplace/bookshelf wall. The person spent hours putting these plans together.
They were so chuffed that they managed to get a photograph of the proposed plan and then FIL built it himself instead.
Saved them paying her 2k apparently.
They tell this story like it's something to be proud of. All I'm hearing is that they took advantage of someone and they should be ashamed of themselves.
I'm the kind of person who goes back if I realise I've been given too much change but they (including my husband) see it as a bit of good luck. It's a horrible trait.
The real you is who you are when no one's watching or there are no foreseeable consequences.
I'm not just honest and decent under observation or threat and I really hope my dd grows up this way.

It has never even occurred to me to do this. A) It's not right and B) you are teaching your children it's ok to lie.

No. I’ll admit to having thought I could probably get away with it, but I’ve never done it. I’m a terrible liar and it would stop me from sleeping at night afterwards.

Haha same. Many years ago now but all dressed up for the clubs, trying to get child tickets on the train, then pretending to be over 18 in the pubs/clubs. The train has less success than the pubs back then, imagine that would be the reverse now thankfully