I always hate the inevitable interrogations when something gets destroyed, and nobody knows how it happened. But, I imagine the complete opposite would be even more frustrating:
Who broke this?
Me
How?
Ninja moves.
Will you please be more careful?
Probably not
Don’t you even care?
Not really.
I don’t think you’re teaching your kids not to lie. You are teaching your kids the situations the community you’re in has decided when it’s okay to lie and when not. We package this as this sort of absolute philosophy but it’s not. It’s very flexible and hard to navigate.
You have probably lied to your kid that you’re out of snacks or that you forgot to bring your wallet to buy more snacks. Or that Santa exists. Kids will eventually pick up on these things.