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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask what your parents told you when you were younger...

37 replies

Pinkerbells · 09/01/2020 22:59

That you only found out wasn't true when you were an adult? (Light hearted)

My mum always insisted that if you are cherries and have a drink with it, it could kill you. Took me a looooong time to risk that one, and she was horrified when I did, even more so when I survived 😁

OP posts:

threestars · 09/01/2020 23:01

That Tippex was made from bird poo. Told all my friends, as a teenager Dad still calls it seagull shit now

BackforGood · 09/01/2020 23:06

Not quite the same, but
My parents were born into the depression, lived as teens in the war and then young adults when there was still rationing etc. They had both experienced considerable poverty as dc, before the welfare state was created and before the NHS was invented.
They definitely had a 'waste nothing' mindset.
Both always made a thing about not wasting food and eating everything. Encouraged us not to be fussy and it was pointed out how they ate everything - didn't see them leaving X r Y.
Only struck me as an adult, that they didn't ever 'leave' anything or 'opt out' of any food, as, of course they only bought things they knew they liked .
Once I left hoe, I realised there were all sorts of things we never had when I was living at home.

Notajogger · 09/01/2020 23:11

My mum told me not to shave my legs above the knee. Something about how if I did I would end up a complete yeti on the tops of my legs, I think. Weird. I still did what she said though!!

Tigger03 · 09/01/2020 23:11

That if you accidentally touched inside a plug socket you would die.

That thunder is clouds banging together.

That the lyrics for ‘you’re the one that I want’ from Grease we’re actually ‘you’re the wizard of Oz’

That it’s illegal to have the light on in the car whilst driving.

FlamingoAndJohn · 09/01/2020 23:14

Now that I’m as old as my mum was when I left home (iyswim) I realise that so much stuff was just her opinion rather than fact.

She had never moved house or applied for a job yet felt justified in giving me her wisdom on both counts.

Sparkle567 · 09/01/2020 23:17

That it’s illegal to have the light on in the car whilst driving

That’s not true? 😂 my parents told me that as well and iv always thought it was true. I even told my daughter yesterday!

Eating your toast crusts will make your hair curly.

Eating your carrots will make you see in the dark.

That when old people die they get sent to the glue factory to be made into glue and wallpaper paste.

Obligatorync · 09/01/2020 23:18

@Tigger03 I thought 1 and 4 were true. Are they not?

JohnLapsleyParlabane · 09/01/2020 23:19

@Notajogger my mum told me that too!
Presumably you aren't my long lost sibling

Tigger03 · 09/01/2020 23:20

Apparently not! I mean, I don’t think touching a plug is great but you won’t instantly die like i imagined!

Chocolateandchats · 09/01/2020 23:20

That using a tampon means you loose your virginity. Luckily we’d had a talk at school where the different between hymen and virginity were clarified so I obviously told her (my mum). Her response was “Just don’t use them, they’re disgusting”. Fast forward 20 years and I happily buy my teen (and myself) tampons safe in the knowledge that I’m not taking her virginity.

SeagullOnTheWind · 09/01/2020 23:21

They said if I picked my nose, my head would cave in.

The weird thing is, from a very young age it was obvious it couldn't be true, but my dad would still yell it at us like it was

iknowimcoming · 09/01/2020 23:22

@Tigger03 - my dad told me that thunder was the clouds banging together too, my mum (who wasn't and isn't in anyway religious) used to say it was god moving his furniture around!

Hellvelyn · 09/01/2020 23:25

My dad told my brother and I that if you didn't step off the top of an escalator quickly enough you would get sucked into it. We used to entertain ourselves whilst on boring shopping trips by standing by the top of the escalator waiting for some careless person to get sucked in!

AmazingGreats · 09/01/2020 23:25

That ears are self cleaning and a soak in the bath will clean out your belly button. Nope. I am now particularly obsessive about cleaning these two areas. I have the inniest of inny belly burtons in a family of outtys so I think that impacted on the belly button issue.

Tonz · 09/01/2020 23:25

That Haggis were animals that ran round in circles and if u caught one u could make a set of bagpipes with it.
We had random noises in the house and I was scared we had a ghost till my mum told me not to be daft we couldn’t afford one

RuggerHug · 09/01/2020 23:26

Chicken and lamb you eat are named after the animals because they grow near them, they were never cute animals.

How they had to bring a lump of coal each to school every day for the heating.

AmazingGreats · 09/01/2020 23:27

@Tonz

Next time my kids get spooked I'm borrowing that!

Chuffit · 09/01/2020 23:31

My mum told me exactly the same @Chocolateandchats
She also told me that if i didn't eat all my vegetables then i would have crossed eyes and have to wear thick glasses.
Also, if i didn't eat my fruit each lunchtime then my boobs wouldn't grow.
Fortunately, i don't have a squint, wear glasses and have a decent bustline.

FrivolousPancake · 09/01/2020 23:38

That the plastic wire bit holding clothes tabs onto clothes were made of cats guts 🤯

BackforGood · 09/01/2020 23:40

Eating your toast crusts will make your hair curly.

Eating your carrots will make you see in the dark.

Well, they are facts, aren't they?

That when old people die they get sent to the glue factory to be made into glue and wallpaper paste.

my dad told me that thunder was the clouds banging together too, my mum (who wasn't and isn't in anyway religious) used to say it was god moving his furniture around!

Are you my sister ?

NemophilistRebel · 09/01/2020 23:45

That spiders couldn’t climb stairs

Sparkle567 · 09/01/2020 23:49

@BackforGood

I don’t think so... Not to the extent my parents said

There is no medical evidence to support the myth that eating bread crusts will make your hair grow curly. Or change hair in any other way for that matter. However, although having nothing to do with hair, it is true that the crust may be the healthiest part of bread

Carrots are a good source of vitamin A, which helps maintain eyesight. But carrots do not actually improve vision, or help you see in the dark, as some parents may tell their children in the hopes of persuading the little ones to eat their veggies

My dad also used to tell us that our mum was a witch and after our bed time she would get her broom out and fly around the house.

Just for disclosure my parents are together still after 30 years and very much happy. He just liked having a joke.

BackforGood · 09/01/2020 23:56

Toddlerteaplease · 09/01/2020 23:57

I was also told that thunder was clouds banging together. Didn't realise it wasn't true until a previous post on mumsnet. but pretty obvious with thought that it's not!

My dad was always trying to tell us that chicken drumsticks grew on chicken drumstick trees. Didn't fall for that!

RachelTension · 09/01/2020 23:58

That if you swallowed chewing gum your lungs would stick together and you'd stop breathing (thus never allowing us to have chewing/bubble gum but actually because DM thought it 'common').

That sheep had two legs shorter than the other, otherwise how do they stand on hills?

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