Never lie to children, says Japanese animation master

"If you want children to trust you, you should not lie to them.

Too late, many of us are guilty of the biggest lie of all- Santa Claus.

That would never work in the west. Parents are expected to lie to their children.

Some parents lie about all sorts of things hoping to alter behaviours too - "you'll go blind" is one. The stork, Easter rabbit, Sinterklaas, and there is one famous fairytale book that is often taught as facts by parents to children around the world.

Well if parents didn’t lie to their children a lot of companies would be out of business and half the world would be bankrupt and religion...

I've consciously tried to lie to my kids as little as possible, and for the most part succeeded. One way I do this is through deflection. I don't tell them a lie, I just redirect the conversation somewhere else, or sometimes tell them 'that's going to have to wait until you're older'. But I personally have found it impossible to never lie to them.

Too late, many of us are guilty of the biggest lie of all- Santa Claus.

This is a good example. When my son was young, I was talking to my friend who had a child older than mine, and was telling him how I was struggling on how to deal with Santa Claus. I was going to tell my son that Santa isn't real, and my friend talked about all the joy his kid had with Santa, putting out milk and cookies the night before, going to the mall (in the homeland) to take pictures with Santa etc. So I put aside my moral opposition to lying to my kid, and went through with the 'Santa is real' thing, and I don't regret it one bit. It's provided plenty of fun and excitement for both my kids over the years now.

Better than lying to kids is to express questions regarding the vastness of human uncertainty, postulate ones own theories, and emphasize that they'll have to eventually formulate their own. Beats the hell out of a binary answer regarding Santa Claus.

You can't handle the truth!