Forty percent of parents say they feel inadequate and embarrassed when they can't answer questions their children ask.

Brain-teasers like "How is rain made?" and "Why is the sea salty?" are said to be the most embarrassing - because parents think they should know the answer.

A survey of over 3,000 parents found that 52 percent regularly have problems answering questions from their youngsters.

But a quarter say they have an easy solution, they make up an answer knowing their child will believe whatever they say. Another 24 percent try to distract the child by offering them something like sweets.

Hmmm, this could explain why my dad used to say so many things where "Just decided by God rolling a dice".