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30 People Share Things Their Parents Taught Them That They Later Realized Weren’t Normal At All
Interview
As children, we admire our parents and view them through rose-colored glasses. They’re the coolest, smartest and most amazing people on the planet! But as we get older, sometimes reality sets in, and we realize that Mom and Dad didn’t actually know everything. In fact, they may have even done some harm when raising us.
Redditors have been sharing things their parents taught them that they later realized weren’t healthy, so we’ve gathered some of their honest responses down below. Keep reading to also find a conversation with the user who sparked this discussion in the first place, and be sure to upvote the replies that make you want to be a better parent.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
“No kid should be on drugs” I was 11, diagnosed with ADHD by a psychologist back when that was pretty new…
Yeah… Every teacher stated some version of “if you weren’t so smart, I’d hold you back” and I barely graduated high school. Seriously thought I ‘couldn’t do math.’
Flash forward to 28. Get over the stigma… Take good meds - graduate cum laude with with degree in Finance at 32. Turns out I can do pretty heavy equations in my head when the hurricane isn’t spinning…
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#2
That you are at least partially to blame for ANYTHING bad that happens to you.
Get beat up by a bully? It's at last partly your fault and you're to be blamed and punished for it.
Get bit by a dog? It's at last partly your fault and you're to be blamed and punished for it.
Accidently step on a nail, cut yourself, fall, have an asthma attack? It's at last partly your fault and you're to be blamed and punished for it.
A few years ago my younger brother (we are in our 30s now) was out on the town at night and got mugged, I had to drive him to the hospital. I started blaming him for it and had to pause and ask myself WTF was I thinking and right then and there had an epiphany that the way we were raise was totally screwed up.
That Goth Demon (zey/zem) 1 year ago
OMFG THATS SO FÜCKED UP IM SORRY THAT YOU HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT ABUSE
To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Timdood3, who posed the question, "What did your parents teach you as a kid that you didn't realize was actually [messed] up until you were older?" Lucky for us, Timdood3 was happy to have a chat with Bored Panda. "My inspiration [for asking this question], if you can call it that, was simply a desire to share my own experience and give others an opportunity to share their own," he explained. "After all, everyone has a 'my parents messed me up' story."
#3
If you’re sad that means the devil is inside you and you need to pray for forgiveness.
I was 6 and my cat had just died
#4
After arguing with a girlfriend and not speaking with her for a few days, BOTH my parents told me separately to hold onto my beef with her like a grudge and use it against her later.
I've been married to the girlfriend now 25 years this year, never once took my parents' advice, and have NO IDEA how my parent's marriage survived LOL
"The story that I shared tells of the time my dad taught me the concept of 'micro-murder'," Timdood3 went on to note. "It was the idea that if someone wastes your time, usually through stupidity or incompetence, that is time they've stolen from you, and you should be upset about it. Whether it's someone driving too slow in traffic or standing in front of the item you need at the grocery store, they're killing you one second at a time."
"And being around 10 years is at the time, it made enough sense not to think about it too hard," he added. "But as I grew older and wiser, I came to realize what a backwards perspective it was. For whatever reason, he just needed an excuse to be mad at strangers all the time."
#5
Anytime I felt hurt by a conflict with a friend, my parents would tell me to never talk to them again because they aren't real friends anyway.
I ghosted all of my best friends thinking it was the right thing to do.
Now, I know that real friends talk things out and it makes the friendships even stronger. A very painful realization. I never even considered my parents could have been wrong. :(
#6
"If you ignore bullies they will go away."
François Bouzigues 1 year ago
But "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by" part was true
We also asked Timdood3 what he thought of the responses to his post and why he believes parents instill these unhealthy lessons in their children. "Obviously there are far too many responses for me to have kept up with, but the most common ones by far are religious, racist, sexist or outright abusive," he noted, adding that he supposes there are two major factors behind why so many people have stories like these. "First, people are eager to have people agree with them to feel validated. And second, kids are vulnerable, impressionable, and trusting. They don't know any better, and that makes it so so easy to convince them to think the way we do, which feeds our desire for validation."
"While a great majority of responses have probably been brought up in therapy, there were lighthearted responses too, like reframing the fairy tales we all grew up with, like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus," the OP pointed out. "Those really got a laugh out of me!"
#7
Parents and other related adults would give me awful s**t any time I didn’t want to kiss/hug my male cousins and relatives or deal with them physically touching me to “wrestle” or “play,” saying that I was hurting their feelings. Basically just teaching me that my feelings didn’t matter about my own body.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Exactly how I felt when my mum and brother kept tickling me when I was a kid, even though I said no (and would wet myself).
#8
Do not ever be a bother to anyone. Solve all your problems by yourself.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago (edited)
I tend to do this mostly because other people do not want to prioritise me (or anyone else apart from themselves anyway), so it's just more efficient. I'm not saying it's a bad thing , just realistic. It's rare to find someone else who is efficient and willing to prioritise someone else's projects/needs.
"My partner and I agree that we're not ready for kids for a variety of reasons, but a lack of parenting wisdom isn't one of them," Timdood3 went on to share. "I think the most important lesson to impart on kids above all else it to treat everyone with respect and compassion, and not in the 'let people take advantage of you' way. Understand that every person you see is living their own life, just like you. No one is better than anyone else. Everyone deserves kindness. Be kind, especially to yourself."
#9
My dad was “teaching” me about credit cards and said you can just make the minimum payment every month. It blew my mind, made it seem like free money. Thank god I didn’t take that advice. I pay my credit card off every month and he’s drowning in credit card debt.
Anne Jones 1 year ago
I always told my kids that when you use a credit card, you aren’t spending money, you are borrowing money, and you will need to pay it back.
#10
Situation awareness, what seems odd or out of place. Felt like i was being trained by batman when I realized what he was doing… dads from a ruff part of mexico with a lot of Narco gang wars… so, he was just teaching me to read if a place or a situation was “out of the ordinary”.
#11
Let boys think they're smarter than you. Nobody wants to go out with a smart girl.
#12
Upon hearing stories of my childhood my husband had to break it to me that it was not in fact normal for moms to share their anti-psychotic meds (or “chill pills”, as she would call them) with their young children.
#13
That there was nothing that could be done about my superheavy periods, that it ran in the family and that was it. Found out when I was thirty that there are literal doctors for that and got on birth control and just like that, normal periods. I had missed so much school and work and suffered in pain and nausea since I was 12 for nothing. Thanks, Mom.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
If it ran in the family maybe she had been told the same thing or just didn't know?
#14
That anytime something bad happened, it was just a dream and if I talked about it, then I was just seeking attention and no one would believe me. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s when my brother brought up some of the terrible things that happened to me that I realized I wasn’t going crazy.
#15
1. Mental illness is not real. You are just thinking of it, and you dont pray enough.
2. Being gay is wrong.
Lakota Wolf 1 year ago
Ah yes. I got the "mental illness isn't real" schtick from my mom too, except her reasoning is that depressed people "just want attention" and "can feel better whenever they WANT to". At least I didn't get any forced praying/religious indoctrination along with it, for what that's worth.
#16
"If a boy is mean to you, that means he likes you!"
Took me a while to learn what a healthy relationship was when I hit adulthood.
#17
That every interaction with other people is transactional in some way. Nobody ever wants to be around you just because they like you.
#18
My parents told me that I had a limited number of words and when I got to that limit I would die. I guess it was an easy way to make me shut up.
#19
How to lie or avoid situations where truthful responses would get me in trouble.
Anytime I spoke up about anything really id be ridiculed and put down by my mother so I stopped talking. If I told her something good happened at school she'd ask why I was still getting such bad grades.
So I just stopped talking.
Sunny Day 1 year ago
My mom always had this avid look in her eyes, waiting for my reaction, good or bad. She wanted something to tell her gossip friends. So I stopped reacting. Everything was "ok', "yes", or "no" with a blank look. I also learned quickly not to ask her anything or tell her anything that I didn't want announced to everyone she knew, or strangers she ran into.
Jennifer Deyarmin 1 year ago
I learned to lie because my mom quite often didn't believe the truth. She always wanted me to be a reblious kid like her so she often didn't believe it my innocent and truthful responses were lies and would demand the truth. I would have to make up a more incriminating excuse. Then she would replay with a "See, it's better to tell me the truth." That was one of the many things she taught me that have left me with habits that still resurface no matter how much I work on improving myself .
H.J. carlson 1 year ago
You've learned self preservation. Very helpful when you're dealing with a negative person.👍
#20
That having and expressing emotions was shameful. Thats some b******t.
#21
My dad instilled crippling perfectionism in me, which I realized was insane when I got older and people told me to just “do my best.”
When I was in grade school, I would come to my dad with A’s all super excited. But, if it was anything less than a 100%, he would ask for the missing percentage. So, when I had a 98%, he’d say “well where’s the 2%?” And now, if I do anything less than perfect, I beat myself up
- 1 year ago (edited)
One of my colleagues has a learning disability and was put down by her family. I found a few ways to boost her self-confidence: show her how to do something that she doesn't know and make her try it so she learns it; if I don't know something, I suggest she do research and get back to me; tell her "It was hard for me, too, when I started learning that". By the way, sometimes she teaches me and she does love learning new techniques. When I had self-confidence problems at another job, the boss gave me "easy" assignments. That made it worse for me.
#22
My mom taught me that when you have bug bites, you should scratch them until they bleed, and then rub salt on them to make them stop itching.
It wasn't until I was 23 and passed that "home remedy" on to a friend and they immediately told me how masochistic it was that I realized something was weird about it.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
or you can get antihistamine cream, which works better and doesn't leave you with scars.
#23
My Dad told me he could drink beer in the car if he drank it while the car was stopped. It’s only drinking and driving if the car is in motion. I was like makes sense. I was around 4.
#24
Apparently healthy conflict resolution doesn't involve complete avoidance in the form of locking yourself in the bedroom for days on end.
Weasel Wise 1 year ago
Or the flip side, get locked in your room against your will for the whole day and "you can come out when your dad gets home and it's time for dinner...then you'll do the dishes and go back to your room to think about what you've done."
#25
"Only TV families resolve their problems and apologize after a big fight. Real families just act like it never happened."
#26
That if you're not bleeding, vomiting, or broken, you don't get to cry about it
#27
"If someone ever touches you hit them back and don't stop hitting until they stop moving"
-> my dad who is facing his third attempted [criminal] charge.
The Other Guest 1 year ago
I'm assuming that it's a murder charge. Getting awful tired of Bored Panda "sanitizing" everything. Do they think their readers are six years old?
#28
Definitely not as bad as a lot of these other ones, and I know it wasn't done on purpose to be malicious, but to eat when I was sad or upset. It's easier and faster to tell a kid to go eat something as a distraction than it is to sit down and deal with it - especially if said kid is upset a lot due to living in abusive environments, getting bullied at school, etc. It definitely really f****d up my relationship with food, leading to emotional eating, overweight turning into obesity, even more bullying, disordered eating and other mental health issues. I realized probably 15 years ago that this was an issue/the cause of it but even though I know that, it's still something I'm working on unlearning.
Cyber Returns 1 year ago
My mom would ask what would cheer us up, and then we would do it, whether its watching TV, making a cake or farting in a jar. If it made us happy when we were upset, we did it
#29
That parents are completely infallible. know exactly whats best for you, should never be questioned and you should do everything they ask you to do. Including being effectively a slave
#30
My mom told me that “you can fall in love with anyone.” The context was like go marry rich because you can fall in love with anyone. Terrible advice. I would tell my kids to find someone who is kind and makes them laugh.
What do you think ?
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
so many abusive parents out there. They really should make a course that you have to go on before you have a child. Maybe also a license.
Danger Bunny (She/Her) 1 year ago
But the thing is - the people who most deserve kids, often do not want to have them
Load More Replies... Cyber Returns 1 year ago
I'm going to point out that I had mental problems with my emotions when I was little and would very frequently burst in episodes of extreme rage and violence. I got treated for it and from the age of 4 until I was 17 I was in a lot of therapy. I had1 abusive dad who fixed his alcoholism out and has been awesome since, making up for what he did, and 2 very violently abusive stepdads. I'm 52 now and have gained so much in my lifetime that I am always happy to share and help. I hope that anyone having these kinds of problems gets the help they need and deserve. My heart goes out to them all
Tee Wallace 1 year ago
The employer is NEVER wrong no matter what they do to you. You're lucky to have a job. My mom is still like that to this day and it took me years of being abused by my employer to leave and not put up with all their c**p. Now I don't suggest that jumping from job to job is a viable way to live but at some point you need to look out for yourself and stop taking all the c**p an employer throws at you.
blinkaoa187 1 year ago
That saying about boys being mean to you means that they like you should be changed to : if a boy is mean to you because he likes you, don't get involved with him
Seadog 1 year ago
My first marriage (24+ years) was mentally abusive to me and our kids. 2 people that came into my life opened my eyes to what was going on and I moved on. One child immediately ghosted the ex-wife. The other eventually saw what kind of person she is although the damage is done. Her effect on him is causing some issues with his wife. I tell any newlyweds or soon to be weds, "No cheating, no lying, no secrets, no arguing. You can disagree but arguing solves nothing and just creates more problems." These are the things I told my second wife before we married, she agreed and this will be our 11th year together and we're both the happiest we've ever been and not one argument, no lies, no cheating, no secrets.
Percy the Band Rat 1 year ago
My Grandparents will say stuff like "you are happy" or "you do want to go stop crying" when I do NOT. They seem to think they know my emotions better than me. I can't "stop crying" I'm not a faucet. I was 5.
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
so many abusive parents out there. They really should make a course that you have to go on before you have a child. Maybe also a license.
Danger Bunny (She/Her) 1 year ago
But the thing is - the people who most deserve kids, often do not want to have them
Load More Replies... Cyber Returns 1 year ago
I'm going to point out that I had mental problems with my emotions when I was little and would very frequently burst in episodes of extreme rage and violence. I got treated for it and from the age of 4 until I was 17 I was in a lot of therapy. I had1 abusive dad who fixed his alcoholism out and has been awesome since, making up for what he did, and 2 very violently abusive stepdads. I'm 52 now and have gained so much in my lifetime that I am always happy to share and help. I hope that anyone having these kinds of problems gets the help they need and deserve. My heart goes out to them all
Tee Wallace 1 year ago
The employer is NEVER wrong no matter what they do to you. You're lucky to have a job. My mom is still like that to this day and it took me years of being abused by my employer to leave and not put up with all their c**p. Now I don't suggest that jumping from job to job is a viable way to live but at some point you need to look out for yourself and stop taking all the c**p an employer throws at you.
blinkaoa187 1 year ago
That saying about boys being mean to you means that they like you should be changed to : if a boy is mean to you because he likes you, don't get involved with him
Seadog 1 year ago
My first marriage (24+ years) was mentally abusive to me and our kids. 2 people that came into my life opened my eyes to what was going on and I moved on. One child immediately ghosted the ex-wife. The other eventually saw what kind of person she is although the damage is done. Her effect on him is causing some issues with his wife. I tell any newlyweds or soon to be weds, "No cheating, no lying, no secrets, no arguing. You can disagree but arguing solves nothing and just creates more problems." These are the things I told my second wife before we married, she agreed and this will be our 11th year together and we're both the happiest we've ever been and not one argument, no lies, no cheating, no secrets.
Percy the Band Rat 1 year ago
My Grandparents will say stuff like "you are happy" or "you do want to go stop crying" when I do NOT. They seem to think they know my emotions better than me. I can't "stop crying" I'm not a faucet. I was 5.
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