Edwina Bartholomew: I lie all the time to outfox my kids

Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew asks if it’s OK to lie to your children, as she confesses to telling her children fibs.

I have a confession to make. I lied to my child. We went to a birthday party and came home with a bag filled with lollies. The Freddo Frog was consumed the minute she was strapped into her car seat and the rest of the bag was set aside for later.

The arguments over when “later” would be started when we got home. The lollies ended up on a very high shelf in the pantry and then after she went to bed, I threw them all out.

We are not sugar-free in our house by any stretch but we do try to be sugar-less.

I optimistically thought my three year old would forget about the treats overnight. Silly me. It was the first thing she mentioned at 6am the next day.

Edwina Bartholomew with her daughter Molly in 2021. Picture: Richard Dobson

So, I lied. I didn’t just say they disappeared or appropriately confess to chucking them out. I told her a fox ate them. I’m not even sure why. It’s now a week later and the complex story surrounding this mythical fox is getting more complicated by the day. I’ve even had to recruit my husband into my dark web of lies.

Molly is a smart cookie and always asks A LOT of questions but her obsession with this fox is next level.

What was it doing in the house? What kind of lollies does it like? Why didn’t it eat the chocolate? What else did it consume in the kitchen? When will it be back?

She is not afraid of it, as such, I just think she is secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of my Fantastic Mr Fox next time he drops in.

Edwina Bartholomew’s little white lie stemmed from a bag of lollies.

It felt like a spectacularly bad parenting moment from me but it did get me thinking, when is it OK to tell a little white lie to your kids? The park is “closed” is a fairly common one in our house or the TV isn’t “working”.

Annually, we all tell our kids furphies. Santa? Most of the world is in on that one. Elf on the shelf? That is an increasingly elaborate and annoying pantomime.

Kids are so savvy nowadays that even though they may doubt the existence of the tooth fairy, you’ll still insist her contribution is indexed to inflation.

Perhaps there is a place for my lolly-eating fox, after all. Maybe after the Easter Bunny visits in April.

Originally published as Edwina Bartholomew: I lie all the time to outfox my kids