For some reason, parents all over the world take joy in telling their children outlandish things just to laugh about what they’ll believe. It’s usually harmless and almost always funny – plus kids can laugh about it later most of the time, too.
These 11 people are thinking back on the things they believed when they were kids, and yes, they’re laughing about how gullible they were once upon a time.
11. Classic big sister move.
my older sister told me that all kinds of ivy acted like poison ivy, this freaked me out because we have a lot of ivy near our yard, so until 3rd grade whenever I walked to school I would walk very carefully and slowly.
I missed the bus so many times… ah, the good old days.
10. It seems unnecessary.
When i was 6 i thought any number above 100 was made up, and could not fathom why anyone would have more than 100 of anything!
9. As long as he brought candy.
My parents didn’t tell my brother and I that the Easter bunny was a bunny. No. They told us the Easter bunny was a man dressed in a giant bunny costume and he was the one who left us treats.
And we were just totally okay with a strange man in a bunny costume coming into our house?
Yes.
8. He just wanted them for himself.
When I was a kid my dad told me slurpees at 7-11 had been outlawed because people were suffering brain damage/memory loss from the brain freezes.
I of course accepted it as fact cause he’s my dad, meanwhile he just didn’t want to stop at a 7-11 and get his hyperactive kid a big thing of frozen sugar water. Believed it for years too.
7. Whatever it takes.
“Smart pills” were in fact ADHD meds.
6. That’s actually terrifying.
When I was little (4 or so) my mom would go upstairs to do the laundry or cleaning something and I would follow her. But when my baby sister was born my mom wanted me to stay downstairs and keep an eye on my sister.
I didn’t want to do this and she told my that my sister could be taken by a cat (I was afraid of cats) if I wasn’t there to protect her. Now silly story right?
I couldn’t see how the cat entered the house so my mom made up that he could slide through the mailbox (which is a slit in the front door) and I believed that shit and saw it as my duty to protect my sister from the cats.
5. This might entice some people.
That coffee and energy drinks make you shorter.
4. Hopefully he figured it out.
My dad convinced me that department store anti-theft pylons (near all the entrances and exits) would give me cancer if I stood in between them too long.
I stood in between them for a while and then they started beeping. For sure thought I had cancer.
3. I don’t like this one.
When I was four or five in the 80s, I found a twenty dollar bill on the ground while I was out playing.
Ran home and showed my mom.
She traded me for a quarter.
She said they’re the same thing, but the quarter was easier to carry, so I wouldn’t lose it.
Happily accepted the trade.
2. We’re onto you, parents.
People sometimes put poison/razors in the Halloween candy.
Don’t give me that crap, Mom. I know you just wanna pick out all the Almond Joys.
This, and the “strangers will give you weed edibles!” What person would give away their edibles?
1. Free entertainment.
That if you pour salt on a bird, you can catch it. Parents had us running around the yard with salt shakers trying to salt the birds. Parents were laughing hysterically at us as we never caught one.
Moral of this story is ‘if you can get CLOSE enough to a bird to put salt on it, you can catch it.
Can’t believe I was running around chasing birds with a salt shaker…
I’m going to have to think back about mine…
How would you answer this question? Spill in the comments!