People Discuss Things They Believed As Kids But Later Realized To Be A Pile Of Lies (30 Answers)
As kids, people tend to believe all kinds of stories, no matter how far from reality they might be. Be it their parents creating white lies seeking to safeguard them—telling them that the car won’t start unless everyone has their seatbelt on, for instance—or other people making stuff up for one reason or another, it might be a while before they learn that in fact, it was a bunch of… nonsense.
Many examples of information that individuals believed as children, but later realized to be false were shared after the redditor ‘Murky-Razzmatazz-393’ started a discussion on the topic. They asked members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community what were the things they used to consider to be true, and many took a trip down memory lane. Scroll down to find their answers on the list below and see if you used to believe any of the same tales.
Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, author of The Secret Life of Secrets, Michael Slepian, who was kind enough to comment on how white lies can affect people and relationships.
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Well, as a kid I loved radishes, my grandpa plantet fruit trees of our favorite fruits for each grandchild, like a Cherry tree and an Apple tree for my siblings...
And a radish tree for me...It was a good tree, when in season, I got to pick a lot of radishes...
Was way to old when I found out... Looking back my grandpa was just the sweetest person one could imagine, placing radishes on my tree (actually it was a Linden tree) when I came to visit.
If you work hard, study in school, and get good grades, you'll get a decent paying job and be able to have a somewhat stable lifestyle.
I do all of that and all it’s gotten me is gifted child syndrome, a fear of failure, and an anxiety disorder
That you should always stay connected with family no matter what happens. SO UNTRUE.
Just because we share DNA doesn’t mean I’m obligated to have you in my life.
“In general, when people tell white lies, they often do so to benefit the other person in some way,” Michael Slepian pointed out, making sense out of why some parents choose to tell white lies to their children.
“Whether it’s getting them to put on their seatbelt, telling them how good their drawing is, or allowing them to hold on to their youth, we often intend to protect children and protect their feelings with these kinds of white lies.”
Surveys suggest that quite a few parents have told white lies to their little ones, with some of the most popular ones—in Britain, at least—being the fact that eating carrots will help them see in the dark, that Santa knows if they’ve been bad or good, and that too much screen time can make one’s eyes square.
My dad told me it was illegal to turn the interior/overhead lights on in the car while you or somebody else is driving LOL.
I’m pretty sure everyone’s parents had some variation of this. For mine it was that they wouldn’t be able to see and would crash
“For adults, the motivation behind the lie really matters,” Slepian continued. “If a person is lying for their own gain—lying for a selfish reason—people tend to evaluate this negatively. But if a person is telling a white lie to benefit someone else—lying for a prosocial reason—then such deception is seen as less wrong, and at times can even be evaluated positively and as showing social grace.”
That quicksand is a legitimate danger to my life.
There's a special dye in the pool that will turn the water purple if you pee in it.
That adults knew what they were doing.
We're all just trying to make ends meet, navigating this strange world to the best of our abilities.
Whether it’s white lies or something heavier, learning about a lie can feel like a betrayal, Slepian pointed out. For example, learning that Santa Claus isn’t real can really sting for some time. But, according to him, it’s an unavoidable cost of letting children believe in the magic.
“When parents have good relationships with their children, learning about these prosocial lies should not have any long-lasting harm. But when parents have less healthy relationships with their children, then these deceptions may be evaluated differently. If a lie is seen as selfish or patronizing, learning of the lie will hurt more,” the expert explained.
If you eat a watermelon seed then a watermelon will grow inside of you.
I didn't realize I was being neglected. I didn't know anything else. I've never had friends.
Religion. Especially after I was expelled from Sunday School for asking too many questions.
The extent to which a lie might affect the person on the receiving end really depends on the motivation behind telling said lie, Slepian told Bored Panda. “If someone lies to a close friend for selfish reasons, learning about this kind of lie will cause a harm of some kind, one in proportion with the size of the deception. But if the lie serves to protect that other person, that other person should be more understanding.”
My mom used to tell me “its says in the bible i can hit you. i am not doing anything wrong”
i dont think its humanely possible for me to believe in religions after that.
Organized religion is mankind’s biggest mistake. This is one of million reason why I despise organized religions and everything about them.
That being nice to someone meant they would be nice to *me*.
Don't get me started on Sea Monkeys.
I always wanted one! Advertised in Mad Magazine, soo disappointed. They’re shrimp aren’t they?
Cars don't start if your seatbelt isn't buckled.
I then told this same lie to my children, it works a treat lol.
I just refuse to leave the driveway/parking lot until everyone has buckled their seat belts
The purpose of law-making and policing is to make society more just.
I now know it's actually there to unfairly enrich people who already have too much and protect them from the consequences of their greed.
You’ll grow big and strong if you eat all your dinner…. No I’m 5ft1 and fat.
I thought the vast majority of people were smart and honest enough to reject the big lie and BS conspiracy theories.
As an american that map kind of can make sense --- but airline connections SAm-Afr or SAm-Asia would just not make sense. That's the good thing about forcing flat earthers to come up with a map, they have to make concrete choices that will be impossible to be consistent.
That I could dig to China.
Yeah, I don't think it mattered where in the world you were, except China, if you dug deep enough you would end up in China. I wonder where Chinese kids dug to?
The police are always the good guys!!!!.
That a$$hole who used to haze freshmen in high school became a cop. My brother punched him in the face one day and then that stopped. A$$hole pulled my brother over (which may have been justified because my brother is a better driver) and according to my brother seemed startled upon seeing him and just gave him a warning. I really don't trust that the cop thing isn't another way for a$$hole to lord his power over everyone.
That whenever I swallowed bubblegum, it would stick to my stomach and eventually kill me.
I was conscious for my first colonoscopy and got to watch it live and in color. There was no chewing gum.
All grownups act in a mature, healthy way, and have children's best interests to heart.
The amount of times my mom told me "Grownups don't scream and throw fits." "Grownups use their big words, not our hands." "Grownups take accountability for their actions. "
No, mom, Grownups TF do NOT!
I suffered for over 10 years both socially and professionally before I finally realized we're all stuck in high school 😤🤬.
You can be whatever you want to be.
If you tell a child this, you are really giving them zero guidance.
Know a lot of parents who was fooling their kids into believing that the bell ringing from the icecream truck ment that it was sold out.
That being abused is normal.
Yikes. Half of these are silly and the other half just make you want to give the OP a hug and a big plate of cookies and tell them that everything will be okay
That carrots help you see in the dark.
This was made up in the war "The idea that it might is due to a myth begun by the Air Ministry in World War II. To prevent the Germans finding out that Britain was using radar to intercept bombers on night raids, they issued press releases stating that British pilots were eating lots of carrots to give them exceptional night vision." BBC Science Focus Magazine
Women get pregnant after hugging a man.
Up until the time I was like 13 I genuinely thought that adults didn’t have feelings. I thinks it’s just cause anytime I was happy or sad about anything, people always told me it was just hormones and I would grow out of it. I was always so upset about getting older because I didn’t want to lose my emotions no matter how good or bad they were.
It’s wrong to like yourself.
That my parents knew what they were doing.
lol my mom said she couldn’t help me with my math homework after geometry… 😅 I don’t blame her I still can’t wrap my head around trigonometric identities
That most people were consistent in their beliefs and their behavior. That people who said they believed that being kind, generous, and understanding would behave that way -- and fight against things that caused injustice, like they do in the movies.
Watching too much TV and movies made me think that standing up for principles was normal. I now understand that it is largely seen as annoying, naive, and actually even badmouthed as 'white knighting' or 'being uppity'.
Don't get me started on what real doctors and police are like versus narratives still heavily portrayed on mainstream TV.
White knighting isn't standing up for your beliefs, it means going out of your way to look heroic. And most wannabe white knights are extremely arrogant, prejudiced, preacherish and generally prefer to help people who are clearly in the wrong. Many of them are extremely sexist pigs. They choose their targets for help by looking who creates the most drama and no one else is willing to help, generally for very good reasons, and then go battling for them often against their victims.
That it’s good to watch the news, that s**t bums me out so much.
It really depends on which channel is sending "the news". A lot of what is called news isn't really the news, it is a tiny bit of information which is heavily wrapped in a message about how you "ought" to feel and act about/in the world. Real news are just updates on what has happened and is served in a neutral way, such that it is up to you to form your own opinion from there. Hence the amount of adjectives, especially the loaded ones (good, bad, evil, horendous, eminent, hopeless etc.) should be minimized to the greatest possible extend. Staying informed is a good thing, as you cannot act properly in a world that you don't understand, but you have to be really critical about which sources of infomation that you use, and analyse it for the underlying intentions. Fox "News" is especially bad and is more like a probaganda channel than a source of usefull information. The language they use is so loaded that it is not that hard to see what is going on.
That y could only have ur elbows on the table if u were married (i remember when my parents got divorced I would always tell them to get their elbows off the table lol).
My mom didn't give us a reason, just "no elbows on the table". This includes my dad, and she still yells at him about it to this very day. :)
That canned asparagus was acceptable.
NOOOOOOO. This is a big reason why people hate vegetables. Gross canned vegetables that get cooked into mush with no flavor does not convince people to give them a chance. My dad told me he was surprised as an adult to learn that he could buy fresh asparagus and bake it and it tastes good. I like how we have all those frozen vegetables you can microwave in a bag. *Though if it is asparagus, it's still better to bake it.*
Santa.
The most unbelievable thing about him is not that he’s able to fly around the world in one night, it’s the fact that he’s able to be at so many shopping malls and department stores at once over the course of what is no doubt his busiest time of year!
That when a chicken lays an egg it's soft when it comes out then hardens when it makes contact with air.
I've seen just plopped eggs bounce. I don't think this one is true.
Not as a kid, but my wife’s friends in college had her believe that every guy that peed in a urinal would pull their pants down to their ankles. Had her believing this for years.
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I thought David Bowie was from Mars because my dad said so. I saw one of his music videos and thought "yeah, that guy being from Mars makes sense." Let's be real though, if it was reveled that he was a visitor from Mars all along, it would not be that shocking.
Not sure about Mars, but I often thought Bowie had to be from the future. Makes me feel better knowing he's just waiting for us to catch up.
Load More Replies...
Back when service bells at stores were a more common thing....as a kid I thought it was fun to ring them, and to make me stop my mom told me when I rang it everyone who worked in the stores heard it and it hurt their ears. So I totally thought it was somehow specially attuned to the workers of the store and that it caused pain so I never rang them, I remember feeling so guilty when I "learned" thus because I wad sure I'd injured thousands of people!!
Think about this, kiddies. You were a Gullible Silly Person before, and believed something foolish. So. What makes you think you are NO LONGER a Gullible Silly Person - so NOW you understand? In many of these examples, grasshoppers, we can see that some Gullibles remain Gullibles and cheerfully believe, w***y-nilly. :-)
You shouldn't have watched so many episodes of Bubble Guppys.
Load More Replies... When I was growing up in the 1960's I was terrified of stepping on QUICK SAND! There were so many afternoon movies,( black and white back then) and the booby trap was ALWAYS QUICK SAND. Countless movies depicted mostly men stepping in quicksand and much like unexploded land mines where you don't dare move without the chance of being blown into smithereens. In the these afternoon siesta movies one gals lover accidently takes a step and the next thing is his gal shouting desperately and pleading DONT MOVE Darling! PLEASE! DONT MOVE!. But the man stretching his arms and hands out desperately stretching to make contact with his desperately screaming girlfriend. But, alas, they are 5 cm too far to get that contact and grip and so... The lover slowly is swallowed up by the somewhat living grips of the moving and dining sand! The tension throughout this scene is so dense and horrifying for my 7 year old mind that I find myself taking very short rapid shallow breaths. That s ene winterrand
When I was a youngster, my dad and my uncle were taking my grandmother somewhere (driving). I asked "Are you driving, granny?" She laughed and said "Lord no, I don't have my teeth in". For that little comment for many years I thought you had to have teeth to drive. I did keep good care of mine.
that Lilliput was in the Shetland Isles... after all they have mini horses - shetland ponies & and mini collies - shetland sheepdogs!
Great list! I feel sorry for the people who are going to miss this and will have to wait 72 hours until it gets reposted again.
I thought David Bowie was from Mars because my dad said so. I saw one of his music videos and thought "yeah, that guy being from Mars makes sense." Let's be real though, if it was reveled that he was a visitor from Mars all along, it would not be that shocking.
Not sure about Mars, but I often thought Bowie had to be from the future. Makes me feel better knowing he's just waiting for us to catch up.
Load More Replies... Back when service bells at stores were a more common thing....as a kid I thought it was fun to ring them, and to make me stop my mom told me when I rang it everyone who worked in the stores heard it and it hurt their ears. So I totally thought it was somehow specially attuned to the workers of the store and that it caused pain so I never rang them, I remember feeling so guilty when I "learned" thus because I wad sure I'd injured thousands of people!!
Think about this, kiddies. You were a Gullible Silly Person before, and believed something foolish. So. What makes you think you are NO LONGER a Gullible Silly Person - so NOW you understand? In many of these examples, grasshoppers, we can see that some Gullibles remain Gullibles and cheerfully believe, w***y-nilly. :-)
You shouldn't have watched so many episodes of Bubble Guppys.
Load More Replies... When I was growing up in the 1960's I was terrified of stepping on QUICK SAND! There were so many afternoon movies,( black and white back then) and the booby trap was ALWAYS QUICK SAND. Countless movies depicted mostly men stepping in quicksand and much like unexploded land mines where you don't dare move without the chance of being blown into smithereens. In the these afternoon siesta movies one gals lover accidently takes a step and the next thing is his gal shouting desperately and pleading DONT MOVE Darling! PLEASE! DONT MOVE!. But the man stretching his arms and hands out desperately stretching to make contact with his desperately screaming girlfriend. But, alas, they are 5 cm too far to get that contact and grip and so... The lover slowly is swallowed up by the somewhat living grips of the moving and dining sand! The tension throughout this scene is so dense and horrifying for my 7 year old mind that I find myself taking very short rapid shallow breaths. That s ene winterrand
When I was a youngster, my dad and my uncle were taking my grandmother somewhere (driving). I asked "Are you driving, granny?" She laughed and said "Lord no, I don't have my teeth in". For that little comment for many years I thought you had to have teeth to drive. I did keep good care of mine.
that Lilliput was in the Shetland Isles... after all they have mini horses - shetland ponies & and mini collies - shetland sheepdogs!
Great list! I feel sorry for the people who are going to miss this and will have to wait 72 hours until it gets reposted again.
