42 Situations When You Should Lie, Posted By This TikToker Who Gives Women Safety Tips
Interview With AuthorLifestyle expert and former scientist Cathy Pedrayes is best known as TikTok’s ‘Mom Friend.’ She gained her fan following after first sharing a video with random items she stores in her first aid kit to prepare her for everything, whether it’s a diabetic emergency or eye puncture.
Today, Cathy has a whopping 1.6M TikTok followers and 74.9M likes in total, making her platform a popular online destination for smart and useful lifestyle, safety, and daily tips and tricks.
Recently, Cathy has initiated a new series of TikToks that feature real-life situations when it’s best to lie for your safety. From being approached by a stranger in a foreign city to avoiding unwanted attention during a day at college, there’s always a way you can respond without revealing too much or getting stuck in a conversation you never asked for.
More info: TikTok | Instagram | MomFriendGuide.com
Lifestyle expert Cathy has been sharing useful safety tips on when you should lie and her videos are going viral on TikTok
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Bored Panda talked to Cathy Pedrayes, the creator of the “Mom Friend Guide,” who’s widely popular on TikTok, where her practical videos gained well over 100 million views in the course of 2 months. Today, she has a whopping 1.7M followers loving her content.
“I was taught about safety from an early age, probably not much different from what most parents teach their kids but I always had an interest in being prepared,” Cathy told us in an interview. “For example, I took a 4-month-long first aid course when I realized I didn’t know how to react in most emergency scenarios.”
Image credits: cathypedrayes
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The content creator said that she didn’t think of herself as unique in terms of following her safety habits. “I thought I was being a good citizen, learning good habits, but my awareness changed when I started working as a host on national television. Suddenly I was exposed to risks, threats, and some extreme stalking cases, which opened my eyes to a new world of safety and security.”
Image credits: cathypedrayes
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At that moment, Cathy realized everything we do is public and there was little education on protecting ourselves. “When I started my TikTok, I was posting random videos not knowing my approach to safety and security was unique. But when TikTok saw how overly prepared I was, they dubbed me the Mom Friend of the Group, and that helped me realize I had a lot to share,” Cathy explained.
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When asked how the idea for her series “Situations When It’s Best to Lie” came about, Cathy said it happened because of a few things. “My mentor at QVC (where I was host) taught me to lie when people asked where I lived. A little lie like ’15 min. down the road.’ This question came up so often, but her little tip helped me feel prepared every time.”
“With quarantine I had forgotten about that tip, but when I was at the grocery store, someone was making restaurant recommendations and asked me where I lived in order to recommend some places nearby—immediately a red flag went up and that event sparked the Situations When It’s Best To Lie series.” Since then, the creator has shared over 60 situations which, on the surface, may seem innocent, but can actually be risky.
Image credits: cathypedrayes
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Street harassment is not just a mere nuisance, it’s a complex societal problem that’s been overlooked for way too long. A 2014 survey commissioned by Stop Street Harassment, a nonprofit that works to document and end street harassment, showed that 65 percent of all women in the US said they had experienced street harassment.
Moreover, in the 2,000-person nationally representative poll, 23 percent of US women said they’d been touched and 20 percent had been followed. Among men, about a quarter surveyed said they had been harassed on the street.
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Another survey of 612 women from 2000 found that women in all areas experience street harassment: 90 percent in rural areas, 88 percent in suburban areas, and 87 percent in urban areas. So it’s not just a big city problem.
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Approaching women on streets reinforces their sense of powerlessness and damages their sense of self. “Without doubt, at the heart of harassment is a deep disrespect or disregard for women as equals, as something more than an object, a body, a sexual being,” says Susanne Legena, Plan Australia’s chief executive officer.
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This makes me mad. You shouldn't Have to make up lies, you should be able to just say "not interested, leave me alone please" to all of those.
I agree, it's unfortunate that in this day and age, people still won't respect a person's (especially a woman's) privacy without you making up a lie of some sort.
Load More Replies...Once a drunk guy approched me on my way home, asked if i life alone and i just lied and said i have a very protective rottweiler named bonny at home. He was like: ok cool, bye!
I do have a very protective dog named Bonnie! She's the best!
Load More Replies...Not sure if just me, but I don't see anything wrong with placing a delivery for food and giving them my first name. They ask it for a reason, after all, and I am calling a restaurant, too.
When the food delivery arrives and it's not the right name the order probably won't be handed out to me(F) if I said it's for "Mario". I don't understand asking a male to register a message on your phone for you either, especially if you have a smartphone...
Load More Replies...Now that I am older and bolder, I have changed my strategy on this. When a man asks me an invasive question I ask, "Why would you ask me that?" and their answer is always either "I was just making small talk" to which I respond "Small talk isn't invasive, your question is" or "I was just trying to be friendly" to which I respond "Invasive isn't friendly". Listen to your gut when you feel uncomfortable. These people are not trying to be friendly. They are predators. Don't be prey.
i bet they r then calling you a bitch cause they were just "being friendly" *eyeroll*
Load More Replies..."Are you meeting friends?" No, I'm just waiting for my parole officer
I have a better way to make them stop. "Not trying to be rude, but I don't do small talk." If they keep at it... "Look...I have the police on speed dial and I have no problem yelling and screaming. So if you don't back off, I'm going to draw a whole bunch of unwanted attention your way." If they still insist, I start yelling something like "OMG! How many times do I have to say NO!! What kind of pervert are you anyway!!!" They usually run after that.....
I'm sorry, but just ignore guys like this and do not answer at all. If you wnat to get away from the creep, go and sit somewhere with other people if possible and keep ignoring him. I see no point in being polite unless you are meeting the guy alone in a dark alley at 1 am and then it might be better to start screaming.
I definitely see this solution working in certain cases, but sometimes, I think that ignoring them could piss them off. And if the creep is 6'4 and 260 pounds, and i don't have my mace on me, I'm not about to piss him off right off the bat like that. So personally, if the creepy has a huge upper hand over me, I might try some politeness first just to avoid any initial confrontation to see if it would work first, but sometimes, I agree this should be your first reaction.
Load More Replies...I spent 4 months backpacking through India three years ago. I stayed in hostels and would routinely come across young women from western cultures traveling alone. I was shocked at how honest they would be to others and tell them they were traveling alone. NO!!!!!!!!!! I told them if someone asked if they were alone (because they were on a bus or train alone) ... tell the inquisitive person, "I'm meeting my boyfriend at the next stop. He traveled a couple days ago and we're rendezvousing in the next city." Some women even gave out their phone numbers! One was getting harassing texts from a guy she met traveling and I said, "Just block his number. Why do you want to see these harassing texts?"
the argument for not blocking texts/whatever is so you can see what they're saying. If it escalates, you can respond, where as if it's blocked, you don't see it... and you don't know if you should take out a restraining order or something. Can't say what's appropriate, but that's the argument.
Load More Replies...When leaving my house to go away for a few days in a taxi to the airport I'd always pretend to be saying bye to someone in the empty house so the driver wouldn't think that's an empty house. There was a suspicion local taxi drivers would inform 'friends' who would burgle homes they knew were empty. I never got broken into.
Correlation does not mean causation. But it couldn't hurt to do that anyway.
Load More Replies...This makes me mad. You shouldn't Have to make up lies, you should be able to just say "not interested, leave me alone please" to all of those.
I agree, it's unfortunate that in this day and age, people still won't respect a person's (especially a woman's) privacy without you making up a lie of some sort.
Load More Replies...Once a drunk guy approched me on my way home, asked if i life alone and i just lied and said i have a very protective rottweiler named bonny at home. He was like: ok cool, bye!
I do have a very protective dog named Bonnie! She's the best!
Load More Replies...Not sure if just me, but I don't see anything wrong with placing a delivery for food and giving them my first name. They ask it for a reason, after all, and I am calling a restaurant, too.
When the food delivery arrives and it's not the right name the order probably won't be handed out to me(F) if I said it's for "Mario". I don't understand asking a male to register a message on your phone for you either, especially if you have a smartphone...
Load More Replies...Now that I am older and bolder, I have changed my strategy on this. When a man asks me an invasive question I ask, "Why would you ask me that?" and their answer is always either "I was just making small talk" to which I respond "Small talk isn't invasive, your question is" or "I was just trying to be friendly" to which I respond "Invasive isn't friendly". Listen to your gut when you feel uncomfortable. These people are not trying to be friendly. They are predators. Don't be prey.
i bet they r then calling you a bitch cause they were just "being friendly" *eyeroll*
Load More Replies..."Are you meeting friends?" No, I'm just waiting for my parole officer
I have a better way to make them stop. "Not trying to be rude, but I don't do small talk." If they keep at it... "Look...I have the police on speed dial and I have no problem yelling and screaming. So if you don't back off, I'm going to draw a whole bunch of unwanted attention your way." If they still insist, I start yelling something like "OMG! How many times do I have to say NO!! What kind of pervert are you anyway!!!" They usually run after that.....
I'm sorry, but just ignore guys like this and do not answer at all. If you wnat to get away from the creep, go and sit somewhere with other people if possible and keep ignoring him. I see no point in being polite unless you are meeting the guy alone in a dark alley at 1 am and then it might be better to start screaming.
I definitely see this solution working in certain cases, but sometimes, I think that ignoring them could piss them off. And if the creep is 6'4 and 260 pounds, and i don't have my mace on me, I'm not about to piss him off right off the bat like that. So personally, if the creepy has a huge upper hand over me, I might try some politeness first just to avoid any initial confrontation to see if it would work first, but sometimes, I agree this should be your first reaction.
Load More Replies...I spent 4 months backpacking through India three years ago. I stayed in hostels and would routinely come across young women from western cultures traveling alone. I was shocked at how honest they would be to others and tell them they were traveling alone. NO!!!!!!!!!! I told them if someone asked if they were alone (because they were on a bus or train alone) ... tell the inquisitive person, "I'm meeting my boyfriend at the next stop. He traveled a couple days ago and we're rendezvousing in the next city." Some women even gave out their phone numbers! One was getting harassing texts from a guy she met traveling and I said, "Just block his number. Why do you want to see these harassing texts?"
the argument for not blocking texts/whatever is so you can see what they're saying. If it escalates, you can respond, where as if it's blocked, you don't see it... and you don't know if you should take out a restraining order or something. Can't say what's appropriate, but that's the argument.
Load More Replies...When leaving my house to go away for a few days in a taxi to the airport I'd always pretend to be saying bye to someone in the empty house so the driver wouldn't think that's an empty house. There was a suspicion local taxi drivers would inform 'friends' who would burgle homes they knew were empty. I never got broken into.
Correlation does not mean causation. But it couldn't hurt to do that anyway.
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