The lies we tell: Readers share whoppers

Sure, some lies hurt, but others are just hilarious.

In fact, our poll found that 75 percent of readers say lying to your kid is OK at least sometimes.

After reading an msnbc.com story about fibbing, you e-mailed us the whoppers you've told your kids and the fictions you remember your parents telling you.

"We told our children that the leftover pumpkins at the pumpkins lots were planted into the dirt and Christmas trees grew from those planted pumpkins within the month. How could they not believe us when Christmas trees suddenly appeared overnight at the pumpkin lots?" wrote in Kris, a creative prevaricating parent.

Read on for more tall tales:

I told my daughter that I went to the doctor and had him fix my ears so I can't hear whining. Now when she starts I just act like I can't hear her till she changes her tone to a normal one. Surprisingly, it actually works.
— Sarah, Md.

My boys loved listening to Raffi. I liked it too...but I reached a point that I'd rather be poked in the eye with a hot stick then listen to one more Raffi song. So, I told my sons (ages 2 and 3)that Bruce Springsteen was Raffi's brother and that Raffi would really love for us to listen to the boss everyone once in a while. Now my oldest son is 7 and he listens to the B-52s, Fountains of Wayne, the Eels, Better than Ezra, REM and yes...Bruce Springsteen. I never regretted that lie even for a minute!
— Lori, Birmingham, Ala.

Before my daughters were able to read I would take them shopping and I would point to a sign near the entrance and read it to them. It was usually one of two signs such as "thank you for shopping with us" or "no soliciting". I would read it as "children must walk with their hands behind their backs." I don't believe they ever touched anything on a store shelf until they could read.
— Teresa Seiler, Rockledge, Fla.

As a young boy I was in the backyard burning ants with a magnifying glass when my dad spotted me and said, "You better not do that, those ants will track you down and sting you". We left on a car trip and I was looking over my shoulder the whole way to Grandma's house. When I was about 16 it finally dawned on me that my dad was lying.
— Stan Davis, Tulsa, Okla.

When my son was 3, he began to fear going to bed at night because of monsters who might come and get him. I have 5 older sisters who have all faced this with their children and tried every bit of advice I could to teach him that there's nothing to fear. We would go through his whole room with the light on, but once they were turned off, he would be scared again. My husband's response was "he'll get over it," but he worked nights and didn't realize how affected our son was by his fear. After months of rough nights for both my son and I, I hit upon what I considered to be a brilliant plan. I came home from work one night with an empty box, called my son to the kitchen and put the box on the floor. I told him that on the way home that night, I stopped at a special pet store, where I purchased Ally, an invisible alligator that lives under his bed and eats monsters. We opened the box together and "watched" Ally scurry to his bedroom and under his bed. From that night on, whenever it was bedtime, he would bend over to peer under the bed and say, "G'nite Ally!" before laying back and going to sleep with no further fears. A year later when it was time to move, he pulled me aside and expressed his fears about what would happen to Ally. I hugged him and told him not to worry, that Ally just crawled into the ripped lining of his boxspring mattress and would be in his new bedroom at night. When he was nine, after he had faced and beaten leukemia (through which we were open and honest with him about everything except his chances of recovery), he sat me down at dinner and demanded the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny. At that time, I also came clean about Ally and the Tooth Fairy. He took it well and said that he would miss Ally the most.
— Tami V., Mass.

My 4 and 6 year olds asked me what the tooth fairy did with their teeth. So I made up an elaborate story about how the tooth fairy trades alligators baby teeth for alligator teeth, and then sells alligator tooth necklaces in Florida so she has money for kids teeth. It never really occurred to me that they'd believe it, but they were mad when they came home and said their friends laughed at them for telling the story. They're grown now, and delight in telling my grandchildren not to believe any stories their Nana tells them!
— Jan Bhatti, Brooks, Ga.

When my children were very small ( now 11 and 8 years old) and we would be eating out, I would tell them the "smiley cookie" from eat and park was watching them or "Mr. Shorty" from Shortys was watching them to make sure they behaved and ate all of their food. Again no harm done and a pleasant time was had by all.
— Kim, Canonsburg, Pa.

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