Sometimes in life, it’s just easier to tell a little white lie to people instead of getting into some long, convoluted story that’s just too complicated to explain.

And we all do this once in a while, right?

What little white lies do you tell yourself to avoid telling the complicated truth?

Here’s how folks on AskReddit responded.

1. In pain.

“I often make it seem like I can only use a wheelchair to get around the place…

Rather than explain just how far I can walk before the pain gets too much…

Which is a horribly short distance BTW.”

2. A bad memory.

“My number of siblings.

No one wants to hear about a long-d**d sister.

It just makes people uncomfortable, and there’s no reason to do that.”

3. A curveball.

“I had to leave the Army because life threw me a curveball.

What I really mean is I was honorably discharged because I couldn’t provide a satisfactory family care plan on where my daughter would go if I had to go to the field for a few weeks of training or got another long deployment.

I became a single parent suddenly when my wife was k**led by a drunk driver after I returned from my second deployment to Iraq.

This explanation usually leaves an awkward silence because no one knows what to say.”

4. Mom.

“I tell them my mother is d**d…

Not a paranoid schizophrenic who kidnapped me at 8 m.o and left me in a drawer of a dresser in the closet of a hotel room alone for days. (who any time was in my state after that required me to have a police escort and spend lunch and recess in the principal office. )

It used to suck trying to lie about why I was in detention or why the police came to school for me.

The last time me and my mom spoke was years ago: she offered to take me to dinner. Drove me to the gas station dinner three blocks from my house, said she wasn’t hungry and had to leave soon then made me walk home before we could even order food. I hadn’t seen her in 8 years.

We spent less then 30 minutes together. I was 17. When I got home there was a message on the answering machine of her telling me what a loser I was.

So she’s dead if anyone asks.”

5. OD.

“That my dad d**d in his sleep.

In reality, he died of an overdose of sleeping pills while in a hotel with some random woman. I have heard conflicting stories all my life.

I was told by some it was suicide, some he was drinking, took pills, forgot he took them, then took another dose, some say it was actually heroin

I don’t think I will ever really know.”

6. Unlucky.

“I tell them I left one of my jobs because they didn’t accommodate my school schedule.

In actuality, I quit because I got demoted when I reported my co worker of $40,000 worth of credit card fraud from our customers. The company was Samsung, American division.

They made my life a living hell because my manager was upset that I didn’t tell him about the fraud. (I told the security team anonymously and obviously they didn’t keep it anonymous!).

My manager would have gotten a bonus if I had told him about the fraud, so he took it as disloyalty and demoted me, and told everyone I was a snitch.

I quit because I put so much into that job but it got too stressful.

I was unemployed for a year after that. And then Covid hit.

I’ve been pretty unlucky these past few years.”

7. I live in the city.

“That I live in ___ city.

I really live in a suburb right outside of it, but nobody ever knows where it is because there aren’t many houses.”

8. Just keep it simple.

“”I don’t drink” is so much easier than explaining my complicated and unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

And also… If it turns into a discussion, you’ve sort of already “chosen sides”, and it’s much more of a hurdle to turn around and drink then.

If I am honest about being conflicted, you inevitably run into people who try to sway you to “their side”, and the bar for doing it will be much lower.”

9. Keep the nosey ones out of it.

““My brother is visiting me”

In truth, actually one of my closest friends from college is a guy and I’m a woman. He’s very close with my family and comes up to stay with me every couple months for a weekend.

It’s awesome, however I really don’t love my one nosey coworker asking me if I’m dating said friend every time we all discuss our weekends at lunch. it makes it a throwaway small talk line to say “oh my brother is visiting”.

10. Wow.

“My name.

My first name is Seven and people always ask about it. My mom never really gave me a straight answer so I like to have fun when people ask. A few of my most used replies are as follows.

I actually have 6 younger siblings

My mom’s a gambler and 7 is her lucky number

My mom really liked that Eddie Murphy movie

My mom is incredibly religious and believes 7 is a holy number.”

11. No shame in that.

“That I drive my older car because it’s paid off and I don’t want a car note. In all honesty it’s because I can’t afford a new car and my credit is totally f**ked.

I work for myself, dropped out and got my GED, have no college under my belt and on paper resume don’t qualify for a decent paying job. I’ve got a repo on my record from when I was knee deep in my addiction and drinking, recently hit my 6 month sobriety marker.

Trying to better myself, but it’s a baby step game, trying not to get discouraged but my credit is a dark cloud over my head at times. Restricts me from getting a better place to live, or a better car situation.”

12. Take care of yourself.

“”Oh, I just took some time off school”.

I was actually in psychiatric hospital for three months.”

13. Lies!

“I work for a third party broker representing a national client (M&M’s candy) in retail stores. Some people have no idea what that means so I just tell them I work for M&M’s. And I still hear-

So you just hand out candy?

It must be tough working with kids.

How do you stay slim when you eat candy all day?”

14. You’re Russian.

“When I was 16, one of my lab partners at school (a guy I didn’t know very well) told me that I looked like I was Russian (and yes, I do look like it).

I’m half Polish, but when I tried to correct him, he cut me mid-sentence and started asking me questions about Russia, which I could not answer because the teacher came and told us to shut up.

Later that week, many people asked me about it (I went to a school where there was basically no one with slavic heritage), and soon the entire school was convinced I was from Russia. I couldn’t be bothered correcting everybody, so I just went along with it.

Don’t know if it qualifies as a white lie, but here it is.”

How about you?

Do you ever tell any white lies to make your life a little bit easier?

If so, tell us about them in the comments. Thanks!