One Christmas when the kids were 10-14 years old. We played a trick with them. Julie would not eat tomatoes, Dan would not eat beats and David had long hair. We had all the regular Christmas presents under the tree and they could only read the labels. But for each we had one that the handle and rattle and try to figure out what it contained. For Julie it was a bottle of ketsup in a long tube. For Dan is was a can of pickled beets, kind of loosely packet. And for David it was electric hair clippers. They rattled away all the way until Christmas morning. Each opened their rattle package first. We all had a big laugh. Fifty years later, they do not remember any of the other presents under the tree, but they all remember those rattle packages.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Those were fun joke gifts. Seems like good-natured ribbing that everyone enjoyed. No one was hurt, physically or emotionally.
Big difference between that and lying to little kids, making them doubt themselves.
Sorry, I’m hypersensitive to this type of stuff because people can and do use it for nefarious purposes. In this crazy world, parents need to build rock-solid trusting relationships with their children because predators and school officials are empowered to break those family bonds.