Maybe it's a good thing I don't have kids

I don't have kids and that's OK. Sometimes I wonder how I would be able to teach them to be good people without making them totally neurotic. For example, today I heard something on the radio about tattling. I can't even remember the context. I just remember thinking that lots of kids over the years have gotten themselves in trouble when tattling on others. Yes, it's good to teach kids not to tell you every bad thing that someone else does just because they want to get that person in trouble.

On the other hand, when we teach people not to tell, we teach people to keep secrets, and not all secrets should be kept. If someone is hurting you, you should tell. If someone is hurting someone else, you should tell.

So how do you teach them when to keep quiet and when to find someone that can do something about the situation?