*Ad - This post was written in collaboration with LifeSearch who provided the statistics used
The best (albeit slightly unethical) parenting hack I've ever come across was one I found on a Facebook mums group a couple of years back, and I can't tell you how often it's helped me to get the bottom of the endless Parenthood Mysteries such as Who Started The Fight Over The iPad and Who Broke Mummys Ornament.
The hack was pretty simple.
Tell your children that when they tell a lie, their ears start flashing.
Sounds a bit pointless, you might think? Well you'd be wrong...coz what do children do when they think their ears flash if they're telling a fib? THEY COVER THEM WHENEVER THEY LIE!
So if you want to know which child isn't telling the truth, just look for the one covering their ears with their hands - job done!
The irony of course, is that in order to encourage your child to tell the truth - you're telling them a lie. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you're ok with that or not. Personally? I've made my peace with little white lies for the greater good!
And it seems I'm not alone.
New research carried out by the UK's leading life insurance broker LifeSearch shows that the average Brit tells over 30 lies per week....and a whopping 18 million of us admit to having lied to our doctors.
But can these really be considered "Little White Lies" if they're having an impact on our physical and mental wellbeing?
The lies that we admit to telling our doctors usually revolve around drinking and smoking habits, and even the severity of our medical symptoms - with six in 10 people suffering serious consequences as a result, such as delays in diagnosis, deterioration in physical and mental health, and even hospital stays.
It's not just our doctors that we're lying to, in actual fact some of the most damaging lies are those we tell ourselves.
The Lifesearch research showed that we tell ourselves around six lies per week, with 14% of those relating to the state of our mental health.
Something I can completely relate to.
Although I'm not at a point in my life where I'm familiar with my mental health needs and struggles, and can recognize a decline when it happens - this hasn't always been the case.
For many years I found it more comfortable to suffer in silence and tell myself that things weren't that bad - convincing myself that my desire to stay home, avoid people and social situations, and avoid traveling where all choices I was making rather than symptoms of poor mental health management.
It wasn't until a health visitor convinced me to go to a therapist that I finally realised how bad things had become, and how I was in need of professional support.
Shying away from the truth can leave families unprotected and out of pocket when the worst happens, which is why LifeSearch is seeking to increase conversations about these issues through its Let’s Start Talking campaign, which encourages the nation to be more open about the subjects that make us uncomfortable, including mental health, money, illness and death.
You can find out more about the campaign by following the link above.
Can you relate to the research? How comfortable you with discussing the "Taboo" things in life? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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