Messed up things your parents told you when you were a kid?

[Gypsydals]

Coffee makes you short. I believed that one for years, until I realized it was genetics that made me short. (double thanks Dad).
If you swallow watermelon seeds, they will grow in your stomach.
If you lie your nose will grow just like Pinocchio.
And if you swallow your gum, you will blow bubbles out of your butt.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Gypsydals

Coffee makes you short.

I was told this when I was 7 or 8, I hope its true. Im 6'2", I dont need to be any taller.

And if you swallow your gum, you will blow bubbles out of your butt.

If I had been told this I would have swallowed ALOT of gum to try. Heck if they told me I would fart bubbles by drinking dish soap or bubble bath I would have done so.

[Sweet72947]

Once when I was a little kid, we went and visited my parents' friends, a nice married couple who I've always liked. The husband had a neck brace on that time for some reason, I have forgotten how he actually got hurt. When I asked about it, I was told that if he took it off, his head would fall off. Then he started acting like he was going to take it off, and I got really upset. Lol

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

See, I was always told the old "if you swallow gum it sticks to your ribs" one.

[Dekka]

This isn't one told to me, but one we perpetrated on a kid who should't have been so gullible.

So back when my brother in law was alive (older brother of hubby) we used to work occasionally for him claim staking and such (mining stuff) Seems he had an investor who wanted to see a site and since they were going up he wanted hubby to walk some lines. The investor brought his 11 year old son with him. I don't think this kid had ever been outside of Toronto in his life. So we are up in the bush a few hours north of Toronto.

Scott (BIL) starts telling Benny (the kid) to watch out for copper flies. Cause you know these copper flies that look just like regular flies sting really badly. They are a good sign though as they are only found near copper deposits. This got really elaborate with bits about allergies and being really far away from a hospital (we were a few hours away from the closest regional hospital). Poor Benny was terrified of everything that flew that day.

Joke was on me. I ended up getting stung by a bunch of bees (hubby walked over a nest in the ground and pissed them off, then along I came and they now had a target..) We got back to camp and we were saying about me getting stung. Benny wasn't impressed as he was convinced he had been stung by a copper fly and that trumped legs covered in bee stings.

That kid must have led the most sheltered of childhoods.

[Kimbers]

My older sister told me that a woman vomits up her babies and that's why a lot of people with kids have extra neck skin.

Not something I was told, but I used to think that people in movies/tv shows who died were criminals on death row who volunteered to be shot/stabbed/poisoned/whatever and filmed for the movie. My dad encouraged the idea for the longest time, too, so I started boycotting NCIS-type shows.

We once flushed a black widow down one of the toilets and my dad said it would crawl up the pipes some time. I still hate using that bathroom...

"Coffee makes your eyes brown and your ears stick out"

But I LOVE coffee