Last year, my son, aged two and a half told us that the childminder had hit him. He told us fairly graphically how she had hit him on his bottom and made him cry. We were really concerned. We talked about it a lot. Our son continued to return from the childminder's saying that she had hit him. Obviously we spoke to the childminder. She denied it and questioned why he had been saying it.

We continued to worry.

Then we went to the zoo for a family day out. We had a fantastic day, a really lovely time. Our son spent ages staring at the monkeys.

When we got home, our son started crying.

"What's wrong darling?" I asked, extremely concerned.

"The monkeys hit me Mummy". "They hit me on my bottom and made me cry".

Hmm, methinks the boy was making it up!

Not long after the monkeys hitting my son, he stopped telling us that the childminder had hit him! At three and a half, the boy has reached a new level of lying. He will tell Daddy that I said yes he could watch TV when in fact I had said no. Luckily my husband has learnt that generally I have said no when he comes to ask him! He is still pretty honest when it comes to admitting that he has pushed is sister over though (worryingly I think he might be proud of this). I wonder how long it will be before I question whether or not he is actually telling the truth about something.

How about you? What do your children lie about?