Did your parents tell you lots of made-up stuff?

[Bobbie]

It occurred to me that my parents made up a lot of crap while I was growing up. Mom told us some cute things about Santa, for example, that he has a special key he uses to get into houses that don't have a fireplace. But I also remember her trying to tell me that Jesus had red hair like me, and that "sex" was Spanish for "six." I had learned Spanish numbers on Sesame Street and knew better.

Now, I can sort of understand why a parent would tell some white lies, but when I was older, they told me some things that were more controversial, such as that if I didn't get scholarships I couldn't go to college, and that if I chose to be an art major, I wouldn't get any financial help at all.

So I thought it might be interesting to share some of the stories and misinformation we were told while growing up. :)

[Barb]

Sometime in the early '70's I asked my dad if we could put up Christmas lights and he told me President Nixon said we couldn't. :lol: I don't know why he blamed Nixon, but in hind sight it's pretty funny.

[SarahK]

Barb! :lol:

[TtownAnne]

My parents told me that if I ate the crust of my bread (because I totally HATED the hard top crust) that it would make my hair curly. Sad to say, that one still hasn't worked.... . :blue:

[Dawnie]

My mom use to tell me all the time that eating my veggies would put hair on my chest! :eek: Thank goodness that didn't come true! :lol:

[olcott]

My mom use to tell me all the time that eating my veggies would put hair on my chest! :eek: Thank goodness that didn't come true! :lol:
My uncle told me that all the time :lol:

[Dawn]

I use to suck my thumb alot when I was little. I sucked it so much that I started to get this little bump on my thumb of dry skin I guess it was. Anyway, my mom told me that if I continued to suck my thumb, another thumb was going to grow where that bump on my thumb was! :eek: Tell ya one thing...that scared me so much that I stopped sucking my thumb after that! :lol: I guess that was my mom's plan as well...to get me to stop sucking my thumb! I think I was like 6 yrs. old.

[Cazzle]

Dad told me that the cat ran away to go fishing at the holiday resort we had been to not long before he vanished.

He also told me that Santa couldn't bring me big expensive gifts because the parents had to pay Santa for them. He was just a glorified delivery boy or something :lol:

I was scared when I was little that someone would break into our house. Dad told me that anyone who broke in would take a look around and leave $10 on the table on their way out.

When my brother's rabbit got out of it's cage, it was hit by a car. Dad managed to keep that from us, and instead convinced my brother that the rabbit had run away to live in the pine plantation.

That man seriously damaged our abilities to cope with reality! :lol:

[Billy]

Dad told me that the cat ran away to go fishing at the holiday resort we had been to not long before he vanished.
:rotflmao: Carol!!!

[Mrs. Smith]

I use to suck my thumb alot when I was little. I sucked it so much that I started to get this little bump on my thumb of dry skin I guess it was. Anyway, my mom told me that if I continued to suck my thumb, another thumb was going to grow where that bump on my thumb was! :eek: Tell ya one thing...that scared me so much that I stopped sucking my thumb after that! :lol: I guess that was my mom's plan as well...to get me to stop sucking my thumb! I think I was like 6 yrs. old.
I sucked two of my fingers and also developed those bumps/indents from my teeth on my fingers. My mom really wanted me to stop when I was around 3 years old, so she told me that my fingers would FALL OFF! :jawdrop: :lol: Oh, and that warning got me to stop too.

[Brooke]

My parents told me that if I ate the crust of my bread (because I totally HATED the hard top crust) that it would make my hair curly. Sad to say, that one still hasn't worked.... . :blue:
My mom says eating white bread in general will make your hair curly.

I can't think of anything my parents really lied about.

[Shannan]

My mom gave me the pinnochio tale...that if I told fibs, my nose would grow...

and it kept me honest...

[Nichole]

Hmm... I can't really think of any big ones.

They did tell us that drinking coffee would stunt our growth, so we were afraid to drink it in case we ended up being midgets. :lol:

[MizLacey]

My mom told me that the Russians control the weather in the US.


My ex and I told our kids at ages 4 and 2 that you can't kiss anyone on the lips until you are married (they had an HIV-positive child in their childcare situation who was overly physically affectionate with her playmates and I needed to give them a good reason to not let her kiss them). When my son was 9 and my daughter 11, their father met a woman. My son finally blurted out one day, "Oh will you just kiss on the lips already so you can get married!" Neither their father nor I realized they still believed that one.

[Connie1222]

My mom told me the dirt under my fingernails and toenails were little animals trying to eat me and that's the only way I would let her cut them.

[Karri]

My parents did the whole crust of the bread=curly hair thing, too :rolleyes:

We had family friends who lived on a farm and they had 2 pigs. One day, the pigs were gone and we asked about them (we were 3 or 4) and they told us that they went to Hollywood to be movie stars, just like Miss Piggy :lol:

When I was 5, I asked how babies were made and was told that when mommy & daddy kissed, that was how babies were made. Yeah - that backfired. A boy kissed me (on the cheek) in kindergarten and I came home soooo upset and said I was going to have a baby :lol: Needless to say, she was forced to tell the truth!

[HollyNSC]

Yes my parents did I remember it well :)!

[Karly]

I can't think of anything my parents said, but I do remember that my uncle used to tell me that if I ate the seeds out of watermelon that I'd grow a watermelon in my stomach. And, another uncle used to tell me that fish eggs were the inside corners of our eyes (tear ducts) and he'd "pretend" to take them in and out! :eek: :lol:

[gulp!]

My parents told my brother that he was named after Ricky Nelson, the singer and actor. It wasn't until my brother was in his 30's that they finally admitted that he was really named after Richard Nixon!! :lol:

[Bobbie]

These are so funny! :lol: My favorite so far has got to be Barb's dad blaming Nixon for the Christmas lights. :rotflmao:

My parents told my brother that he was named after Ricky Nelson, the singer and actor. It wasn't until my brother was in his 30's that they finally admitted that he was really named after Richard Nixon!! :lol:

Would you believe I have an uncle named after Little Joe Cartwright?

[Bev]

I am embarrassed to say I never heard of the bread crust = curly hair theory until I was 36!! In other words, LAST YEAR!! I don't believe that one, because Mason has curly hair and he doesn't even eat bread. :biggrin:

[SarahK]

My mother told me that every time I lied, my tongue turned black--so whenever she suspected me of lying, she would have me stick my tongue out...and then tell me my tongue was black, so I must be lying.

[Kate]

My dad always told us that our tongues turn black when we lie.

My oldest brother told my other brother and me that my parents had another child when they were first married, named Mark, and that they had to give him up for adoption because they couldn't afford him. And that he is now living in California.

My DH's mother told him that if he smoke marijuana he would get AIDS.

[Bev]

My oldest brother told my other brother and me that my parents had another child when they were first married, named Mark, and that they had to give him up for adoption because they couldn't afford him. And that he is now living in California.
That reminds me! My dad always used to tell us we had a brother Martin in a mental home in Hamilton. :dunno: I'm not sure why he told us that, but it went on for years. :)

[redhairedgirl]

My Mom has some REALLY twisted ones...

If you ate raw spaghetti, you would have worms come out of your butt when you sleep. That kept me from eating raw spaghetti..

She had these weird stories too....

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was just a head. He had no arms or legs, just this head. His mother would sit him up on the window sill every morning so he could watch the little boys and girls playing outside. One day, he asked his mother if he could be put outside for a closer look. After much consideration, the mother gave in, and placed him outside in the grass one morning. A little boy came by and kicked the little boy head, and he started rolling along and went out into the street. All of a sudden, a big Mack truck comes by and squished him. The moral of the story, "Quit while you are a-head". :rolleyes:

We were so upset that Santa couldn't come to our house (because we didn't have a chimney) that my Dad actually drilled a hole into one of the walls in the basement. THere was a little wooden door, and every Christmas, we went downstairs and opened the door for Santa. Oddly enough, we never seemed to doubt that it was maybe 6 inches wide. :lol:

My father is a police officer, and he always threatened that if I was doing something wrong, that he would find out and have his other police friends take me to jail and leave me there. I believed that.... until I was smart enough to drive across state lines and into a new jurisdiction where they didn't know me. :lol

My family is crazy... no wonder I've been through therapy.
Mandy

[B.Mace]

They did tell us that drinking coffee would stunt our growth... :lol:It doesn't???? Man! My mom told us that too! (and cigarettes!)

Mom used to tell us that whistling made the Blessed Mother (Virgin Mary) cry. Can ya guess we're Catholic. I swear - it just rolls off my tongue still. I used to tell that to my old boss when he whistled. He said, "What do I care - I'm Jewish!"

[Bobbie]

If you ate raw spaghetti, you would have worms come out of your butt when you sleep. That kept me from eating raw spaghetti.

:rotflmao: That's quite a visual image.

[Cat]

Some of those are hilarious!

Here are some of my mothers tales! It is little wonder I am the way I am.

Eating carrots makes you see in the dark.

When we were bad, she used to tell me and my brother she was going to call the supermarket to get a refund on us and send us back.

If you picked your nose it would fall off.

Dont eat the pips from an apple as a tree will grow in your tummy.

I was also a thumb sucker and was told that it would fall off.

After quering my mother on where do lambs come from, she told me turnips. I believed this for years as the farmers always had turnips in the fields when the lambs were born!

Go to sleep, or the man in the moon will get you, another thing I belived for years, there really is a man living on the moon!

[redhairedgirl]

Dont eat the pips from an apple as a tree will grow in your tummy.


Same here! We were also told the same thing about watermelon seeds. I was always scared to death a watermelon would start growing in my tummy! :lol:

[Martian Lullaby]

My parents were never that imaginative! Some of these have me :lol: !!

[Jillian]

My mom told me the whole easter bunny, santa, tooth fairy things like almost every parent. Other than that she did lie to my brother that we never found his cat when it got hit by a car. And she waited till I was done with my SAT's before she told me that my grandpa did have cancer, before that it was just kidney stones, cause she was afraid I'd do horribly if I was upset. As far as I know, that is it. The grandpa one bothered me, but I understand it now, the rest I never had a problem with.

DH's parents also just did the normal holiday and your pet ran away (as opposed to dying) lies, and he is still bitter about it today...especially the pet ones!

[KatieK]

Tons of them. Most of the time we didn't believe it....

Those black (oil) spots on the road are little girls who didn't hold their mommy's hand when they crossed the street

Giraffes ate all the leaves off the bottom of aspen trees

Black banana pie is a delicacy in some countries (:rolleyes: )

Your face will get stuck like that

You can get pregnant and AIDS by riding in a car driven by a teenager (:rolleyes: :rolleyes: )

There was a whole set of lies surrounding Santa, the tooth fairy, etc. All very credible, I assure you. :lol:

[Amy]

My mom was always telling me not to cross my eyes or they would stick. My dad's mom was an old fashioned Southern lady, and when he asked her where his little brother came from, she said it was because she washed her 'undergarments' with his dad's!!

some of these are hilarious...I remember the whole 'coffee will stunt your growth'. I know that's a lie, because my little brother LOVED coffee as a kid (even at 3 & 4) and he's 6'4" and over 300 pounds.