We are all taught from a young age that we shouldn’t lie. Usually, the first people who teach us this are our parents, and yet often they told us lies when we were growing up. How many of us believed in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and were told that when the ice cream truck rings the bell it means they have run out of ice cream? These things our parents told us can be considered as white lies, but when does a white lie become a harmful lie?

Telling the truth should be a natural instinct but often we find ourselves putting a twist on things or stretching the truth to either get out of trouble or make ourselves sound better.

These are the kind of lies that can come back to haunt us later because more often than not, the truth comes out. When this happens, any trouble you were in is usually magnified, making you look worse than if you had been honest from the start.

Additionally, there are the lies that are told by people who are trying to get what they want and feel that they need to do so by lying about others and altering their personality to suit their audience.

These are all examples of harmful lies. Lies of this nature are not usually held in very high esteem and people who do this on a regular basis are much more likely to find friends backing away from them once they have been caught out.

White lies tend to be a little more harmless. These are the ones that you might tell your children like those in the examples above. Another example would be telling your wife her bum doesn’t look big in order not to diminish her self-esteem, or telling your husband that the grey streaks in his hair make him look distinguished, not old.

Generally speaking, little white lies are the ones that are used to either continue an ongoing tradition (like Santa Claus) or to spare someone’s feelings.

There are times when the boundaries may overlap a little, especially in regards to lying in order spare someone’s feelings. A white lie becomes nasty when the liar tells someone that they won’t do something if it will upset them, only to later go ahead and do it anyway.

There is a huge difference between white lies and harmful lies. Both should be used with extreme caution because you never know when that lie you deemed harmless will be discovered and disliked by those who were on the receiving end of it. If you don’t like being lied to, best to avoid doing it altogether.