What’s the thing you low key regret telling a child because of the (unintentional) trauma it may have caused?

Once, I was in the bathroom, looking at the mirror with my then 8 yo second son who could be a bit of a ‘scamp’ at times. He must have been playing up a bit on this occasion because I pointed at his reflection and said, ‘That’s Evil You. He lives in the mirror and is quite keen to get out and swap with you. And left the room.

Years later, story totally forgotten by me, he tells me that absolutely scared the living s*** out of him. He spent a while avoiding that bathroom totally (we’re fortunate enough to have 2) and then spent many times ‘testing’ the reflexes and reaction times of the evil version of himself by making quick movements in front of the mirror or suddenly jumping in front of it trying to catch his doppelgänger out!

Crazy times, we still laugh about it and for the life of me I don’t know why I didn’t call it a ‘good’ version or why I said it at all for that matter, but he did say at the time he was genuinely scared sh**less of ‘him’.

What’s the worst thing you’ve told a child?