Popular lies parents tell their children

What lies do you tell your children to behave well or eat their vegetables? Most likely the same lies our own parents told us.

Telling fibs is just one weapon in the parenting armoury when it comes to controlling bad behaviour, with 78 per cent resorting to white lies to encourage a certain reaction.

Now BabyChild.org.uk, has collated the most popular lies UK parents tell their children with more than 1,500 taking part in the study.

The top ten lies were:

1 Eating carrots makes you see in the dark
2 Eating crusts makes your hair curly
3 If the wind changes, your face will stick that way
4 If you’re naughty, you’ll get a lump of coal for Christmas
5 Sitting too close to TV will make your eyes square
6 Father Christmas won’t come unless you’re asleep before midnight on Christmas Eve
7  If you tell a lie, your nose will grow
8 If you swallow a seed, it will grow in your stomach
9 Eating spinach will make you big and strong
10 If you swallow gum, it’ll stay in your stomach for seven years

Of those parents who did lie to their children, 45 per cent did so to children aged between 3 and six years, 38 per cent to those aged 7 – 9 and only 9 per cent to children aged 10 – 12.

A 79 per cent of parents who admitted to lying to their children said they were repeating the same lies when they were told during childhood.