Lying to children

[cleanandclothed]

Article in the Times here
I find the whole article but especially the list at the end, extraordinary. I would never contemplate lies about 'policemen coming to get you' or 'going to jail if you don't go to bed'!!! I was expecting something much more nuanced about Father Christmas

Well when I say "never lie" of course that doesn't include things like "the shop has run out of ice cream" etc..

I feel like I should be noting some of these down for future use

i think most of us tell little white lies to their kids yes.
when i was young (with both parents being police officer's) i got told a few times a pc would come round and tell me off....once they got one of there work mates to come around in his uniform and he told me off!!!! and i can say it did work!!

"Santa is watching you" here too.

Also my car won't start unless everybody's seatbelts are done up .

I agree, little white lies to make life run smoother are unlikely to harm anybody. And I love the "magic" bits of childhood: toothfairy, easterbunny, santa.
But threats along the lines of "bad men" etc are just awful and Wrong, IMO.
DS1 is currently reading a book featuring dragons and he asked whether dragons are/were real. I told him no, but that they have featured in legends and myths since the beginning of oral history and there may be some connection with dinosaurs.

Nought wrong with being honest with kids - up to a point!

dh used to really enjoy telling our dc really really tall stories, and they used to enjoy it too. I can't imagine any trauma resulted. I don't recall my parents telling me fibs, but my big sister and brother loved making things up, and for some reason I was incredibly trusting (in fact I still am at heart fairly gullible) apparently for years I would never pull the plug out of the bath because of the crocodile that sucked up all the water. My mother said it was very annoying. I can't actually remember this at all.

The control stuff is slightly nasty, but hey we all say stuff that we may regret when we are at the end of our tethers, and actually I think having a "perfect" parent would probably be a really bad thing too.

"I don't recall my parents telling me fibs, but my big sister and brother loved making things up"

That's what older siblings are for lol.
In the bathroom we had one of those textured windows so that no one can see in, and when it was dark the street lights reflected in a way that made it look like a face. I told my little brother it was someone watching him when he went to the loo (for no apparent reason that person I'd decided was Jesus ), so he was then scared of going to the loo at night, I also told him vampires lived in our loft, so that he always ran under the loft hatch.