What MoneySaving fibs do you tell your kids?

sillyvixen

I don't have children, but our church has a gift service every year for donations to the salvation army for famlies whos kids would otherwise go without at Christmas. I have lost count of the number of times a young child at church has asked why we do this as Santa/Father Christmas will give them presents - I just explain Santa and the elves are very busy and can't make enough toys for everyone in our town and therefore has asked us to help him get enough toys for everyone.

WelshmansDaughter

I look after children and the three year old tells me that she has planned to go to the coffee shop when I pick her up. I have to tell her that it's closed on Mondays/closed for Christmas holidays etc. I tried once telling her we had no money to go and she told me to get some 🤣🤣🤣

Alanp

My dad used to tell me to put my pocket money in the savings box under the stairs….years later I discovered it was the gas meter..

MACKEM99

pollypenny said:

When we went camping in France for the first couple of times we told the kids that they couldn't eat ice creams because it was made with tap water which we couldn't drink. 

This was 1976 and we were pretty hard up, the:exchange rate was dire but the shone. 

Not so hard up if you could afford to go to France? 

Dfw38

With regards to father Christmas we tell the dc that he brings stocking gifts (sweets, fidget toys, finger puppet etc) and one present of their choosing (if reasonable, was an art set last year). Well last Christmas one of the stocking gifts was a refillable water bottle, dc wanted to know why it is the same as the one in asd@.... I told them that to raise funds needed for Christmas presents the elves and santa have a sideline in making goods for shops and getting paid for them so sometimes if the perfect present is found (the said water bottle....) it is rerouted to the right child for Christmas. The funniest part was eldest dd said to 2nd dd "that makes sense, nothing is for free you know..." she is 8 years old 🤣. Teach 'em young... reap the rewards 😎 

Voyager2002

monkeycat25 said:

I told my daughter if they had to advertise on TV, it meant the product was rubbish & they couldn't sell them...

That is not a fib but a rule of economics! 

RobM99

My grandmother told my mother - fresh biscuits were soggy, stale ones were crisp!

anon_ymous

cassie75 said:

As my daughter is now in her 30's I don't remember many of the white lies I told, but I do have a cautionary tale to tell.

My daughter was diagnosed with Autism when she went to Uni for her Post Grad course, so mid 20's. We then found out by many discussions with her about her childhood that she took everything we said literally. So many of those white lies had really upset her as a child. She was in secondary school when she found out Santa was not real.

I now feel really guilty about all those little things we say without thinking to kids :-(

There's an 18 year old in a town over, and you can see from local Facebook groups that he still believes in Santa

It's difficult to have multiple people explain that Santa is for the younger kids, especially as the stuff he posted in the local group was about how he mailed Santa and asked for lots of very expensive items

He sadly doesn't realise that the COL means that his parents can't get that but the idea of Santa only goes to younger kids may help him somewhat 

There is the odd person who's said Santa isn't real but most people haven't the heart 

Tyler_Durden_UK

So, the movement sensors in my house (for the house alarm) have a red light when they pick up movement.  When my daughter was younger we used to tell her that the light meant Santa was watching and checking for bad behaviour.