London, Oct 23 : Its not just children, who always lie, even parents know the art quite well, according to a new survey, which has shown that they tell up to 3000 lies to their kids while bringing them up.

Parents tend to lie about mere things in order to make their children behave properly; they also often lie about things when they do not know answer to the questions their kids ask them.

“Most lies are ones our parents told us. Fables get passed through generations,” the Sun quoted Kathryn Crawford of The Baby website, which commissioned the study, as saying.

The most common lie told by 84 per cent of mums or dads is that Santa Claus only gives presents to good children.

Other white lies include eating spinach makes you strong and muscly, watching TV too long gives you square eyes, an ice cream van’s jingle means it has sold out, and making silly faces will make God cross.

The survey found that 25 per cent of parents even happen to tell little ones that their private parts will fall off if they play with them too much. (ANI)