The Internet Discusses the Dumbest Lies They Were Told as Kids and the Results Are Too Real
Parents sometimes tell little white lies to their children in order to get them to listen or follow the rules. A prime example are ones about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. However, a study found in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology that actively lying to a child can result in having a negative impact on their social lives as adults. In a viral post that examines things parents tell their children, many chimed in.
In the "Ask Reddit" forum, u/AfterIsIsIsIsIsWas posed the question, "What were the dumbest lies you believed when you were a kid?" Thousands shared the things they believed as a child, including science facts, sex, religion, and more.
Redditor u/DocBak1 explained in the top comment with over 29k upvotes that they didn't understand how war death scenes looked so lifelike in movies, so they asked their brother what the process was.
"He proceeded to tell me that they empty out state prisons in the area the movie is being made, dress them up and give them guns and tell them that if they survive the filming then they get to leave jail after," they said. "I was told that at around 7 and I believed it till I was around 10."
Other Reddit users shared similar stories underneath a comment from u/exeL4n, claiming that their parents could see everything they did. "Our entire house was covered by cork-sized security cameras."
u/Dr_Drabbles replied to u/exeL4n's post and described how they believed their mother had eyes in the back of her head — until they later discovered she saw them through a reflection in the window.
"She could tell us what we were doing in the living room while working in the kitchen facing away from us," u/Dr_Drabbles commented. "We'd test it even further by doing the 'how many fingers am I holding up?' test and she'd get it right every time."
u/Roefl said "the draining sound of the water in the bathtub was a monster that would suck you in as well. A lie made to get me out of the bath."
u/Jasonwinters added another popular "dumb" lie saying, "you could get a ticket for having the light on in your car while driving." Others admitted their parents told them it was illegal.
And, while the "lies" varied in humor and severity, u/Kitchen-Commission47 noted something many were told as children: If you swallowed the black seeds found in watermelons, one would grow in your stomach. "Yeah, that Rugrats episode didn't help much with not believing that lie either," u/creepypie31 said.
