# The lies we tell our kids **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493 "2013-07-14T17:49:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/1 "2013-07-14T17:49:14Z")
How many of you “learned” growing up that swallowed gum takes 7 years to clear you system or you can derail a train by leaving a penny on the track or public pools have a urine-detecting chemical added to the water? What others were you told? I’m not asking about the ones that are clearly ridiculous (if you make that silly face it’ll freeze that way or swallowing watermelon seeds will cause watermelons to grow in your stomach.) I’m asking about the ones that have the ring of truth that many parents might actually still believe themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/2 "2013-07-14T17:53:46Z")
The old adage about not swimming for an hour after you eat comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/3 "2013-07-14T18:20:01Z")
Bread crusts have more nutrients in them, so it’s not good to leave the crusts on your plate. I think I was in college before I really thought about that and went “wait a minute…” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/4 "2013-07-14T18:21:36Z")
Lightening is attracted to noise, you have to be quiet during a thunderstorm. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/5 "2013-07-14T19:08:14Z")
Lightning never strikes twice in the same place. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/6 "2013-07-14T19:17:23Z")
Mothers have eyes in the backs of their heads. I told my kids that ‘shut up’ was a swear word. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/7 "2013-07-14T19:34:35Z")
> [@Victor\_Charlie](#): > > How many of you “learned” growing up that swallowed gum takes 7 years to clear you system or you can derail a train by leaving a penny on the track or public pools have a urine-detecting chemical added to the water? I never heard any of that from my parents. That was stuff learned at school, from the bigger kids. ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/8 "2013-07-14T19:35:11Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#): > > Lightening is attracted to noise, you have to be quiet during a thunderstorm. I’ve never heard that one. Is it regional? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/9 "2013-07-14T19:39:51Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Mothers have eyes in the backs of their heads. > > I told my kids that ‘shut up’ was a swear word. Honest to god, a kid that tells someone else to “shut up” comes across as a lot more rude and mannerless than a kid who lets slip a “damn” when they drop their ice cream cone. ETA: Erma Bombeck wrote once that she taught her kids that steak makes children sick. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/10 "2013-07-14T19:43:51Z")
Yes, **Victor Charlie** , there is a Santa Claus. And the old American patriotic standard stories about Washington and the cherry tree, and Lincoln trudging miles through the snow to return a borrowed nickel. (Actually, I suppose a nickel would have been a significant sum in those days.) It was generally believed in the 1400’s that the world was flat. Columbus was a really innovative thinker (and maybe even a heretic) to believe that the world is round, and a reckless foolhardy adventurer for sailing west, quite probably only to fall of the edge of the Earth, to prove it. Likewise, Good Queen Iz was a fool for financing such a mad venture. Cecil Adams exists. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/11 "2013-07-14T19:47:40Z")
See also [Lies My Teacher Told Me](http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/liesmyteachertoldme.php) and [Lies Across America](http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/liesacrossamerica.php) by James W. Loewen. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/12 "2013-07-14T19:47:56Z")
The car couldn’t start if the seat belts aren’t buckled. Well, technically not a lie, since I _wouldnt_ start it… ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/13 "2013-07-14T19:59:34Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Columbus was a really innovative thinker (and maybe even a heretic) to believe that the world is round, and a reckless foolhardy adventurer for sailing west, quite probably only to fall of the edge of the Earth, to prove it. Likewise, Good Queen Iz was a fool for financing such a mad venture. He was reckless and foolish, just for different reasons. His ideas about the world were totally wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/14 "2013-07-14T21:08:12Z")
The only falsehood I remember being told is the one about not swimming for an hour after a meal. But it wasn’t a lie; she believed it and so did I. Oh, here is one she told me when I was in college, if you can believe it (she apparently did): sleep before midnight is twice as beneficial as sleep after. Also that to lose weight you should drink less water. (“Are you trying to claim that water has no weight?” I was speechless. Of course, I should have said that you are not trying to lose weight; you are trying to lose fat. But I didn’t think fast enough.) ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/15 "2013-07-14T21:48:57Z")
Oh I told my little girl about the pool urine thing just last month. It always kept _me_ from letting loose in the pool when I was a child. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/16 "2013-07-14T21:59:25Z")
> [@Victor\_Charlie](#): > > I’ve never heard that one. Is it regional? My mother heard it from her grandmother, who had a whole houseful of kids. She figures my grandmother told the kids that to save her sanity when they were all stuck in the house together during the storm. My mother passed it on to us and I still feel like I have to be quiet during storms, ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/17 "2013-07-14T22:07:50Z")
My next door neighbor told me that when you fall asleep, your heart stops beating. I used to lie in bed with my hand over my heart to see if it was true. She also told me if you touch your window screen when lightning flashes, you’ll be electrocuted. She was pretty mean to naive little me. My grandmother told my mom that bread crusts gave you curly hair. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/18 "2013-07-14T22:20:05Z")
The tofu-version is even better. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/19 "2013-07-14T22:41:50Z")
Ken Jennings collected a book of these, _Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids_. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493/20 "2013-07-14T23:23:47Z")
Q: Where do babies come from? A: The hospital. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lies-we-tell-our-kids/663493.md?page=2)