The history books are slanted, but I think the best way to derive true facts is to read about events from the points of view of several different historians. As far as children are concerned, we shouldn't lie to them from a textbook standpoint, but it kind of sucks to be the only kid who doesn't believe in Santa, and may not know how to react to other kids who believe in him. Therefore, I wouldn't want to ruin xmas for a four or five year old, but I also wouldn't entertain any religious notions. Guess I'm glad I don't have kids- what a dilemma.

it's a proven fact that school history books are wrong.

Always be truthful ,it is surprising the depth of understanding they do have ,even at a young age.
Your children will determine that you are lying. You may reserve some of the details for an appropriate/later time though.

While I was raising my daughter I tried never to lie to her. I never told her there was a Santa Claus or any other supernatural thing. I believe it's important that they know they can trust you. I would never write something like "I never lied to her", because lying is just too easy and I'm sure over the 20 years that I was raising her that one squeaked out from time to time. But almost certainly those lies were wrong.

Never. I never lie to my daughter. I have been known to keep some of the information from her due to certain situations and where I believe her level of understanding or emotional maturity is. For example:
When my daughter was 10 I discovered her biological parents had moved to a different state and were pregnant with twins (they have already given birth to 6 children; 1 passed away as a baby and 5 were taken away by the state). I felt a deep need to let my daughter know as these were her full blood siblings, but I also knew she was not ready to handle such heavy news. I had since found out she lost the pregnancy. Last year I found out they were pregnant with another set of twins and they were born, both girls. Being that she was older and much further along in her emotional maturity I felt the need to tell her. Her reaction at this time was amazing. She yelled, cussed and threw things. Said how much she hated them and just let her anger out. This from a kid that holds in every.single.emotion! She showed that emotion - raw and beautiful. She now has a total of 3 new younger siblings that she has never met. She is handling it like a trooper - not shying away from it or pushing it down deep until she blows up - no, she is feeling and expressing her anger and getting past it.
So, no - never lie - never ever lie. But, yes, omit when required.

There is no need to lie to children, if you want to engender trust. Give a child the answers he or she can understand and are age appropriate. Life is amazing in all ways and curiosity is to be nurtured and never hampered by lies.

Absolutely not. This teaches kids that lying is ok.. be honest with them from the start. I did with my daughter and I don't regret one bit and it taught her to do the same with her kids.

Parents start off by lying about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Jesus. Kids can play make believe, but need to know that it is make believe. A childhood of magical thinking leads to an adulthood doing the same. Believing in religion, infomercials, and homeopathy are good examples of magical thinking. Children should be told the truth about everything. They might not need to know all the details about certain things until they can understand or until they ask, but never hide the truth.

omissions more like but some times you just have to fib to get ones way. they're crafty and will manipulate you if you're not on your toes. It was a rarity and now they are functioning beings in spite of me !

I do not recall many of the things that were told to me during my child hood, but I do recall some of the lies, not so much the actual lie anymore but more the fact that I was lied to and by whom. children when asking a question will only focus on the part of the answer that immediately concerns them, so it is not relevant to tell any more than what they are prepared to hear, but I believe that it should always be the facts

I answered 'yes' on the poll, but not because we should be lying to children. The choices of 'perhaps' or 'maybe' or 'yes and no' were missing, so I had no proper answer. My actual answer would have been, "It depends upon the circumstances and the type of information being imparted."

Okay, I had a great chemistry prof named Mr. Wells. The first semester was tough, but I managed. Chemistry is not my strong suit. Entering the lab on opening day of the second semester, Mr. Wells went to the lectern, slammed a meter stick against the wall with a resounding bang, and said, "Forget everything you learned last semester. It was all a lie designed to get you to this point. This semester, we are going to learn chemistry."

I learned a great lesson that day. There are some things that require a bit of finessing/lying to get one from point A to point B where the blinders can be removed.

Children, like first semester chemistry students, don't have a range of understanding and knowledge needed to grasp certain ideas and need to be eased into them. That doesn't mean outright lying to children is okay, but it does mean that we often fail to realize that they don't have the right tools available to them to process certain things without some modification. What may seem totally rational and obvious to us, may be a total mystery to them.

Advice: Think long and hard about what and how you tell a child anything and always err on the side of prudence. Just sayin'.

No. First of all lying to children just teaches them it is OK to lie. Trying to shield them form unpleasantness only makes them ill prepared to face life's challenges.

I felt bad letting my girls believe in Santa, that is how childhood indoctrination begins.

I think children have a very good built in BS detection system, and lying to them is a sure way of losing their respect very early.

Never. That said, I did to my children when I taught them about Santa Claus. I also did not refute atheism to them and I deeply regret that. If I had it to do over, I would actively support non-theism, critical thinking and science and the scientific method.

I know a lot of history is rewritten and people tend to see what they want to see. I have always tried to instill this knowledge into my daughters education. I personally do not lie to her. Never was good at it ... we like to enjoy the pretend characters like Santa, Easter bunny and tooth fairy but she knows and always has known they are essentially me. We like the game. I don't use made up characters to threaten my daughter to be good or else. If she is bad she knows it is me that is disappointed and me who will punish her. I want to completely brag here; In this mostly Christian town that constantly pushes 'God needs to be in everyone's lives and in public schools' I get way more compliments about her than her fellow students that are being raised Christian. I know my daughter trusts me because I do not lie to her. I do not get this Christian thing for lying to kids and it seems to be spilling over into our history books. I sometimes think that the people rewriting the history prefer people that are religious because they are more willing to swallow the lies. After all they all ready do.

Where do babies come from...

No, that being said they don't need to everything just the answer to the question they asked; too, much information is often given by adults when answering a child's question.