My daughter was about 4 years old when she announced that her friend's Mom just had another baby and that her friend told her "it hurts really bad". She asked me if that was true and I told her it was. She asked how babies get into their Mom's bellies and I told her that Jesus puts them in there. She started to get kind of upset and said "But I don't want to have a baby if it hurts." I told her that was fine; she didn't have to have a baby if she didn't want to. "But what if Jesus puts one in my belly anyway?!?" She was very panicky at this point and I told her that there was actually something else you had to do with a boy before Jesus put a baby in there. "What?" I told her we'd talk about it when she was older. "No. Tell me now! What is it? Just tell me." I told her that it was kind of complicated and I could try to explain it to her but she wouldn't understand it until she was older. "No, Mama, please just tell me what it is because I want to make sure that I never do it!!!!" I finally just told her that it all starts with kissing and left it at that. "Okay, well I am NEVER going to kiss a boy."

I really don't lie to my kids. I think it's better to be honest with them from the start. They're not really at the questioning phase, but when we get there I'll explain things as best I can, regardless of what the question is. When my kids want to watch a show I don't like or want a treat I don't tell them it's not on or that we don't have any. At 3 years and 20 months they're both too smart for that. My husband and I tell them honestly that we don't want to watch that show or that they just can't have a treat right then.

They're just white lies, to get your child to eat his food and curb bad behavior, I wouldn't call it "lying" considering no one is getting hurt and all parents do it at some point.

You lie to your children, you breed LIARS. You are rude in front of your children, you breed rude people. You talk crap about others, you breed gossipers and bullies. GET THE PICTURE MOMMIES!

Please, please, please stop saying over and over that moms lie to their kids about certain childhood fantasies! It is 8 am. There could be kids watching. You both could have left it at "childhood fantasies." The whole world knew what you were talking about as the whole world helps to perpetuate it!

The "professionals" who appeared on Wed am's today show made some preposterous proposals. The statement (I'm paraphrasing") "If you need to leave the park because you have another obligation and the kids don't want to go, it's okay to say you have to go because the park is closing," is the laziest, stupidest thing I've ever heard. The kid needs to leave the park because you said so. Period. Whining and crying? Give em something to cry about - like a swat on the behind with a wooden spoon. So, when your kid is 16 and 6'2 and you are confronting them about a lie, keep in mind, they learned it from you. Little white lies and regular black lies are ALL lies. If the truth is inconvenient, that's just life.

I was completely shocked someone would believe to lie to your kids is ok. We even told our kids Santa is a fun story and we can enjoy it, but Jesus was born at Christmas and that's what we celebrate. They are very stable kids and know Mom and Dad are not going to lie to them. My husband grew up where lying was everyday and he felt a lot of resentment toward them. Can we not trust our kids to handle truth properly?

WOW!! In less than a 5 minute interview, these ladies---#1: completely ruined the "fantasies of childhood" by dispelling Santa, Easter Bunny,Tooth Fairy,etc., to any small child that happened to be in the room while the Today show was on.... #2 Essentially said, because Moms are under pressure, that it's "ok" to lie, and #3 even if the child finds out about the "lie", it's ok, because you still have time to "repair" your relationship.......REALLY??????!!! Damaging interview in too many ways.....geeze.

I'm dismayed to see that lying is considered okay at anytime. I do not lie to my kids, not about Santa, not about anything. I don't lie to my husband or friends either. If I realize that I did, I apologize! I want them to love the truth whatever that may be and not be wondering if they can trust me. Lying builds distrust and is a form of disrespect.

I completely agree with kaylin76 i DO NOT lie to my kids!!! That is probably the most important thing I want to teach my kids, to BE HONEST! Yes, this might step on people's toes, but I am teaching them that words are powerful and also teaching them to speak appropriately and kindly. Since I don't lie, we do not have Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy in our house. The featured guest on the show gave the example of being at the park and saying if it was time to go it was okay to say "the park is closed" to avoid a big scene. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Step up and BE THE PARENT! It's umcomfortable and hard and your kids will not like a lot of the decision you make. But guess what.....that's why YOU are in charge and NOT them. If it's time to go, IT'S TIME TO GO. If your kids throw a fit, physically pick them up and place them in the car and they will receive the appropriate consequences at home. I feel very passionate about this since we are raising a generation of pacified, entitled children whose parents are afraid to "hurt their feelings." I love my children more than anybody, but I feel I am not doing them any favors by making sure they always "feel good" by tiptoeing around the truth, or by flat-out LYING.

I just saw this segment on the Today Show and was a little worked up about it. Are you kidding me? It's okay to lie to your child because you have a full schedule and the car is parked a 1/2 mile away? Plan ahead, ladies! How hard is it to give your child a 5 or 10 minute warning? And it's okay to lie to your child because you need to keep up with the technology of the day, e.g. Facebook and Twitter? Did I hear that correctly? Whether you call it a lie or a white lie, I think it's a cop out. I heard a woman in a store tell her little girl that if she didn't sit correctly and quietly in the shopping cart, the police would come. There are so many other ways to parent that are honest and, frankly, much more effective.

(coming from a mother of four children, ages 10, 13, 16 & 18)

Ok...I'm watching the Today show and they are doing a segment on Mom's lying to their kids. This woman is actually saying that lies (small) are necessary. First off, a lie is lie no matter the size or color. Second, they are never necessary but rather a choice because you can't think of any other way to handle the situation without dealing with the possibility of guilty feelings. I have a teen that I've NEVER lied to nor do I need to do so. If it's something I don't want him to know (for whatever reason), I tell him it's not for him to know. Otherwise, I tell him in an age appropriate way. The best part is: My conscience is free of guilt.

Shame on the Today show for allowing specific examples of childhood stories to be used as examples of parent lies. Many families have the Today show on as they are preparing for their day, this includes children. The content of the interview could have been understood by the viewers without using these examples by name. It is a decision of the parents, not the Today Show, to reveal truths or keep the magic of these childhood characters alive in their homes.

I am outraged. Not only did this story make me sick so did the "experts" you had speaking on the topic. Being a parent means teaching your children the good and bad about life. Sometime these things are fun to teach and other times it hurts or may be uncomfortable. We are raising future adults here people. Too often I am encountered by an adult that was raised by a lieing parent and am offended by their behavior. Let's look at the facts and start being honest with ourselves. Maybe, just maybe if we teach our children honesty from the begining we wont have to hear of cheating spouses, bank robbers/kidnappers trying to get away with, well, robbery and kidnapping, polititians that actually stand for what they say they believe in (streching I know) and so on. I do celebrate the Santa tradition in my home second the the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Santa, also known as Chris Kringle, was a real man and gave gifts to children to celebrate the love he experienced and carry on the giving of Christ (simply stated). I give one gift to my children from "Santa" and carry on that tradition, and they know this. As for leaving the park or not going someplace they would rather be, never lie it will backfire some home eventually and the only ting that will do is discredit you. Food for thought when you think of the teenagers that hate their parents.

There's nothing wrong with telling white lies to your kids to get to curb their bad behavior. When I was a child my brother & I were very picky about eating vegetables so my mom pointed out an elderly woman with severe osteoporosis while we were at the grocery store & told us she got that way because she didn't eat her vegetables! While that's not really the truth, it got my brother & I to eat our veggies without anymore complaining & now that I'm an adult I know that she was fibbing, but I don't think any of my mom's fibs hurt me or confused me in any way. As long as you're honest about the things that are important, little fibs won't even be remembered into adulthood.

I think the whole idea of lying to children being okay is ridiculous. You cannot expect to foster a culture of honesty between you and your kids when you lie to them. They will find out if they haven't already, and it will affect their ability to trust you at some point in the future. Our kids have never believed in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, because they would eventually learn the truth and be upset about it. When Santa, who is attributed with certain god-like powers, is shown to be a well-spun fallacy later in a kids life, it can shake their belief in other things that are unseen. If you are a religious family, it could very well shake your kid's confidence in the existence of God. We have borne out a policy of honesty in our family and I believe our kids are better for it, and would tell you that themselves.

I don't call celebrating the magic of Santa, the Easter bunny, or tooth fairy..lying. Its a part of being a kid and i choose to keep these characters alive for my son. As my parents did for me...there is no harm in believing. I do not condone lying about stupid things like "the park is closing" NO..you have other things to do and its time to go...enough said.

My kids just came to me and told me Santa, The Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy aren't real because sometimes parents lie to their kids!!! and they heard it on the today show!!! Unbelievable, I guess my loyalty to this program is now over.

There is a huge difference between telling a story and out right Lying. If we tell our children a story about Santa and allow them to form their own opinion (eventually) it's no different then telling them a story about Noah and the Ark, or Daniel and the Lions den...it's a personal, parental choice and certainly not harmful. I also do not agree that explaining something to a child on the level they are able to understand it is lying. Like telling my child semen is the seed that makes babies...(it was on the Nature Channel, don't judge!) That wasn't lying, it was filtering the truth for his age & understanding.

And by the way...what is wrong with saying brussel sprouts are baby cabbages if it gets my kids to eat them?! PUHLEASE!

I am an avid Today show viewer and although I do monitor which segments I watch while my kids are in the room, I was not prepared for what I saw during this segment. From what I gather looking at the rest of these comments the women from Parenting magazine were defending lying to your children. I did not make it that far into the segment because I quickly raced to turn the Tv off when I heard the woman being interviewed comment that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are among the lies we tell our kids. I am so disappointed that on a morning tv show, this woman would not have enough common sense to think before she opened her mouth. Isn't there an unwritten rule about this type of behavior???