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Parenting is all about unconditional love, empathy, and family values. But it also involves a few bottles of wine, bribery, and lying. Fortunately, moms and dads aren't sugar-coating any of it.

To show you that being a hypocrite isn't necessarily a bad thing, Bored Panda put together a list of tweets where parents share the times they... stretched the truth with their kids. From the classic "I can see it from here" to the new-age "Hummus is princess food", we included them all. Enjoy!

However, people should be really careful when it comes to lying to kids. Imagine this: An adult meets a child and says: "There is a huge bowl of candy in the next room. Want to go get some?" The child agrees and follows the adult into the room.

But there is no candy.

The adult admits it was a lie, explaining, "I just said that because I wanted you to come play with me."

This was the first step in an experiment by Chelsea Hays and Leslie Carver. The researchers subjected 46 children to this trick, and as you can probably guess, these kids felt disappointed. But the children were polite and agreed to play with the adult anyway.

This leads to the second part of the experiment—a guessing game.

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Lauren Caswell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My dad is the only one of our family who eats Brussels sprouts: had a friend over for tea in high school, he asked her if she liked Brussels sprouts, she exclaimed "oh no, they're gross! But I do like those little cabbage things" (meaning the sprouts). Proud of my fam , none of them blinked an eye. I guess she just said "ew Brussels sprouts" coz we all did/other ppl do, without realising

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For this phase, each child was asked to stare straight ahead while the adult held a toy behind the child's back.

The toy represented a familiar fictional character (like Winnie the Pooh, or the Cookie Monster), and the child had to guess the identity of the toy without looking.

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Kira Okah
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a kid, I was told, simply enough, tht you should wear your seatbelt in the car because without it a car crash can kill you. I don't see why this situation would require a lie when the truth is perfectly fine here.

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After playing two rounds of the game, the adult suddenly told the child that she had to leave for a minute to answer a phone call.

She said she'd be right back and the two of them would continue the game. Meanwhile, she explained, she was going to leave behind the next toy to be identified (she covered it so the child couldn't see what it was) and put it on a table.

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"Don't peek while I'm gone!" she said.

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Jyri Hakola
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably the next lie will be that daddy sleeps now in a sofa because there he can hear...

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The adult was gone for 90 seconds. During this period, a hidden camera recorded the child's activities. When the adult came back, she asked the child to promise to tell the truth, asking "When I was gone did you turn around and peek to look at the toy?"

Hays and Carver recorded the answers, and compared the results to those of children in a control group (47 kids who went through the same procedure, but without the initial trickery).

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Wendillon
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think my mother used this on my brother too. Kid was too lazy to use the potty.

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The results were really interesting. Compared with older children, 3- and 4-year-olds tended to peek more often. But they also tended to tell the truth more often. Their responses didn't vary by the condition—being lied to did not make a difference.

But the behavior of older kids (ages 5 and up) depended on the adult's track record. The kids who had been tricked by the adult were more likely to peek. They were also more likely to lie about it afterward. 

Now at least you know the potential consequences of lying to a child. Assuming they catch you...

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Lauren Caswell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes this lol, I'm currently in a long term battle of wills and I use this :D

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Something
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not only do you not have to go over and see it, they are also more likely to behave themselves thinking you can what they are doing.

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Nicola Roberts
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Be careful, I'm a middle aged woman that can't leave the house, start work, go on a journey, join a meeting, without going to the bathroom first!

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troufaki13
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Once my 3yo nephew had a sleepover at my house. When he woke up the next he asked me "why are you so beautiful?" I almost cried :D

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DogMom
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Until the day the ice cream truck shows up without music

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Lauren Caswell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our computer and tv used to need naps, or they would be so tired they would need to sleep all of tomorrow. As evidenced by the computer having a sleep mode! XD it was good while it lasted, he's long since wised up but it worked for quite a while

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Brendan
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, "If you don't stop by the count of three - one, two, three...Ok, this is the last time I'm gonna count!"

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Lauren Caswell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You'd be surprised how many toys we tried "new" batteries in, but sadly they didn't work! (Only on several really awful toddler toys, nothing he was attached to)

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Marcellus the Third
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It should be. The fact that they're corporate sociopaths that keep it open is no reason to pay them.

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Draco Malfoy
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Go hide, I'll come find you." I can just imagine the child 3 hours later, just standing in plain sight like: "Mommy, can you find me?" and she just completely ignores them haha

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Alexa Hume
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am at work right now and this song is playing on the radio, how ironic

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KiwiBubbles
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my goodness, my brother used to be up at 6 or 7 any day we didn't have school, but on school days my mom had to go in his room multiple times and work SO hard to force him to get up! I probably did that too when I was younger (and had less appreciation for sleeping in) but he's younger, so I remember him doing it more recently.

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