Discussion

In your exam question, you are asked to discuss in a short essay the idea of lying to children and decide whether it is acceptable or not.

Lying to children is something that most adults do at some point in their lives. For parents, protecting their children no matter their age is something almost innate. Initially, when children are young, parents usually lie to preserve the ideal world children believe in. In this case, we can even talk about lying about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. These lies are small, and they do not impede a child’s development. On the contrary, they help children believe that the world is good.

When children grow, parents can sometimes lie because they want to preserve a certain image of themselves in front of their children. For instance, parents might hide the fact that they smoke from their children. They might...