Fess up: what fibs do you tell your children? - £200 voucher to be won.

[EllieSmumsnet]

What fibs do you tell your children to make parenting a little bit easier? From saying carrots help you see in the dark, to pretending the ice cream van has run out when the music plays – three-quarters of parents admit they tell little white lies to their children.

But with criminals becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s more difficult to spot when someone’s telling you a big lie. In the run up to Christmas, fraudsters will try to trick you with “too good to be true” deals on products that never materialise. One in four parents have been tricked by a purchase scam, so don’t get caught out this festive season!

• Share your family fibs in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw.
• One lucky winner will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.

Here is what the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign has to say:

“Stay alert to criminals targeting you with purchase scams. Only 26% of parents always research a new retailer before making a purchase, but doing your homework this Christmas season could help protect you from scammers.

Use secure payment methods recommended by reputable retailers and be wary of bank transfers. Pay by credit card for purchases over £100 if you can.

Shop savvy in the lead up to Christmas, find out more about protecting yourself from purchase scams at: www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk”

Jack frost makes the roofs white on a freezing day

DS hated eggs, but when I showed him a 'flat egg' sandwich - he now loves them (flat eggs in our house are in fact fried eggs)

That sadly, they've run out of adult tickets for soft play, so I'll have to have a cup of tea and mind the shoes whilst they go in,

I have lied about things so that it's not always evil me saying no, eg that my phone is out of data when we are in the car so I don't have to argue about screen time. Or that we've run out of biscuits so the only option on offer is fruit. Or I don't have my purse with me when we go past the cafe in town that has his favourite cake that is also ridiculously expensive.

I'm very forgetful though, so I try not to lie about things that will come back to haunt me three days later.

When my son was about 5 he asked me loudly on the bus ‘what’s a virgin?’ So I told him it was an airline. He also asked me at a similar age ‘what’s a tampon?’ - in private this time thankfully but I ducked out and told him it’s what rock climbers use, because I just didn’t have the energy to have that conversation at the time!

When I needed 2 minutes peace from my toddler I told him squirty cream was 'magic cream' and would only work if he didn't watch me do it...

Following our visit to our German friends we decided to take our 2 DDs 15 and 8 to tour the Netherlands ending in Amsterdam and flying back to the UK. We did the sights and wandered around the canals. Unfortunately we wandered onto the red light district. Our 8 year old wanted to know why there were lots of ladies in bikinis in the windows. We fibbed and said 'what a lot of fake tanning salons there were all those ladies must be drying after their spray'. We completely forgot about it until our now 22 year old daughter told us her bf was off with the lads on a trip to Amsterdam and that she'd told him all about the tanning salons.

Mcdonalds is closed today. 🤐

Aunt Bessie is a real person and makes everything in her farmhouse kitchen - they seem to eat it then.....

That I'm not scared of spiders. I don't want to influence them to think they have reason to be scared, like me.

For when the tooth fairy has forgotten to visit..... you mustn't be brushing them well enough, the tooth fairy only comes to clean teeth. There is enthusiastic attention to technique for a while then.

That the lyrics to gangnam style were not "eh, sexy lady"... and instead were "eh, Saxon lady".

Thereby making the song both more suitable for small ears, and giving it a jaunty historical angle!

The Wi-Fi goes off at the main at 7 pm

We tell the grandchild the flashing alarm sensor in the corners of the rooms are Santa watching to see if hes being good, we now pretend throw his dummy to Santa until bed time, works a treat!

The sun controls the water tap in the garden and we cannot play with it when it's cold or raining.

Generally I try and stick to telling the truth. I did let them believe in Santa and the tooth fairy though as they got so much joy from it, but told them the truth when they asked if they were real.

Father Christmas will only come if his bedroom is tidy 😂😂

That you can write down your cares and worries, put them on the fire and send them away up the chimney to lighten the load on your heart.

That my snacks are too spicey so they don't want to take them from me! Also any nice drink I have is really fizzy

That every time he fibs a star appears on his forehead. Now I know when he is lieing as he covers his forehead with his hand 😂😂

I read the title and straight away thought when the ice cream van music plays they have run out of ice cream!

Fruit machines are actually money sucking machines. One go and they suck all your money away.

Thunder is old mother Riley falling out of bed (it's what my gran told me when I was small and I never knew who she was 😅)

Santa, the tooth fairy. My 2yo is scared of the robot vacuum so when I’m desperate I tell her to hurry up otherwise robot might wake up… not proud of that one

That there aren’t any snacks available when they’ve exhausted the usual supply, but I’ve hidden some stuff in a different cupboard in the kitchen for emergencies.