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Original poster

What were you told growing up that were just pure lies!

147 replies

Magik01 · 26/04/2022 19:35

Talking about this today with a friend, apart from the obvious Santa/Easter bunny/tooth fairy.

I was that chewing gum (as in the long flat ones back in the 90s) were made of cob webs. And if you ever swallowed gum it would stay inside for 7 years. 😂

That bread crusts would make your hair curly.

Has anyone else heard these or have any random things they were told as a child?!

OP posts:
Katya213 · 26/04/2022 22:32

If you made a funny face and the wind changed direction, you’d stay like it forever.

TolkiensFallow · 26/04/2022 22:34

@stimpyyouidiot oh. I’m 38 and I thought this was true.

tootiredtoocare · 26/04/2022 22:42

Chewing gum sticks to your ribs.
Bread crusts - curly hair and straight teeth
Sweets before lunch time - straight hair and curly teeth!
Don't make faces - if the wind changes you'll stay like that

@Brightrainbow my nanna called dandelions 'pittlybeds' 😆

Porkmore · 26/04/2022 23:03

My dad told me he had a brother growing up but he was kidnapped by goblins when they were playing in the woods.

The scar on his side was from a shark attack (he actually had his appendix removed as a kid)

A few years ago my sister who was in her late 20's was talking about how it must have been difficult for him losing a brother (she'd forgot about the goblin bit) and how brave he was for fighting a shark. I still take the piss out of her now for it.

ChloeHel · 26/04/2022 23:17

That biting your nails would cut the inside of your stomach…should have just been honest and said biting nails can lead to bacteria in your stomach 😂

2tired2bewitty · 26/04/2022 23:24

Boys don’t make passes at girls that wear glasses. Thanks gran 🤓

Taytocrisps · 26/04/2022 23:25

That my Dad's age was 23. Every year. For about 12 years. I was a very gullible child.

Kat1953 · 26/04/2022 23:32

TheFormidableMrsC · 26/04/2022 19:46

If you pull a face and the wind changes direction, it will stay like that. I mean WTAF? 😂

I tried that once. I had balls of steel as a child.

Katya213 · 26/04/2022 23:33

Taytocrisps · 26/04/2022 23:25

That my Dad's age was 23. Every year. For about 12 years. I was a very gullible child.

🤣🤣🤣

greenlynx · 26/04/2022 23:38

in my teenager years: if you cut yourself while shaving armpits or legs you might get cancer.

Villagewaspbyke · 26/04/2022 23:40

That if I walked around the garden in bare feet I would get Bilharzia. It was London ffs.

Kat1953 · 26/04/2022 23:44

you can pop your eye out it’s socket and it’ll bounce around on the muscles stringy thing. Like a yo-yo.

I think that's true...? Not that it's easy to pop out but if it does it hangs down your face and you get weird experience of seeing the ground with one eye and straight ahead (or whoever youre screaming to) with the other

MardyOldGoth · 27/04/2022 00:54

My mum is a big tea-drinker and my dad often made it for her. When I was little I asked why she didn't make her own tea and he said it was because she didn't know where the kettle was. I bought it and asked her if she knew where the kettle was and she played along and said she thought it was in the coal bunker. I believed that too. Then one day I saw her using it and realised that I'd been lied to. It's been 40 years now and we're just starting to get the trust back! 😄

CounsellorTroi · 27/04/2022 13:11

That if you swallowed chewing gum it would stick to your heart and stop it beating.

That if you put your knife in your mouth it could cut your tongue off.

CeratopsofthePharoahs · 27/04/2022 14:56

That simply getting cold will give you a cold.
Or you'll get a chill. Good grief, the sheer number of times I was forced into extra clothing because of the mythical chill. I spent a lot of my childhood too warm, a bit sweaty and itchy because I might catch a chill. My mum refused to let me buy a shorter coat because I might get a chill in my kidneys.
When I was at university I bought a waist length leather jacket and felt very odd the first few times I wore it!
So many of my friends parents believed in catching chills. Why were they so bloody obsessed with an illness long proved to be utterly made up?
Also - eating dry pasta will swell up and grow inside you until it fills up your stomach. Except it doesn't when you put it in water?!? Same for raw bread dough.

howdyhey · 27/04/2022 17:18

If you get even one detention at school it will go on record and you will never get a job

RhubarbFairy · 27/04/2022 17:33

Kat1953 · 26/04/2022 23:44

you can pop your eye out it’s socket and it’ll bounce around on the muscles stringy thing. Like a yo-yo.

I think that's true...? Not that it's easy to pop out but if it does it hangs down your face and you get weird experience of seeing the ground with one eye and straight ahead (or whoever youre screaming to) with the other

'Whoever you're screaming to has just given me a proper belly laugh. Thanks!

RhubarbFairy · 27/04/2022 17:56

That you'd get white spots on your tongue if you lied.

That chewing gum would wrap itself round your insides.

That chewing gum causes your stomach to digest itself as it prepares for food that never comes.

AlexCabot · 27/04/2022 20:55

howdyhey · 27/04/2022 17:18

If you get even one detention at school it will go on record and you will never get a job

DD1's school were great proponents of the "permanent record" myth.
She got caught chewing gum on school premises (Shock) and was told that her future career prospects were now in jeopardy because it would go on her "permanent record".
I told her it was a crock of shite!

MsIreneWinters · 27/04/2022 21:58

In a similar vein to above, that prospective employers would be desperate to see my Record of Achievement at interview.
I spent hours on that thing!

CurryandSnuggle · 27/04/2022 22:05

My mum still tells me every NYE not to do the laundry on New Year’s Day as it symbolises washing a life away and someone close to me will die.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 27/04/2022 22:08

@Brightrainbow
If you pick a dandelion,you’d pee the bed that night

One French word for dandelion is pissenlit

tuliplover · 27/04/2022 22:18

My mum used to say that we should eat broccoli as it would 'put hair on your chest' - we are three girls! We had no problem eating it at all but I think this is what her parents said to her...

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 27/04/2022 22:22

If you pull a Guinea pigs tail it's eyes fall out!

We didn't have a Guinea pig so we were unable to test this out.

Greensleeves · 27/04/2022 22:26

My dad told me a story about a little girl who swallowed chewing gum, and it wound its strings around her heart until she died.

He also pointed at the TV and said "that thing in the corner is a monster, and it wants YOU"

but I made DS2 drink milk by telling him it was 'ice-cream flavoured milkshake', so I haven't got a leg to stand on Grin