What is one lie your parents told you as a child that completely screwed you up?

[CaseAgainstFaith]

Well I'll go first.

Scarring level at the time was bad, but looking back I laugh.

My dad told me when I was 5 the bar underneath the seat that just moves the seat forward and back, was the the lever that would eject your seat from the car like in the james bond movies.  Never did touch that thing til I was like 10 and learned what it really did.

[Atheissimo]

I asked my Dad what the sliced ham in the fridge was made out of. He replied 'Gorilla'.

I didn't eat processed ham for years after that.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Why is this thread limited to parents?  I think my sister told me once long ago that "gum was made of cow guts" or something crazy like that.  I'm not sure how much it "screwed me up," but it was a disturbing thought, regardless.

[Jodie]

That Santa was real.

When I questioned if Santa was real (especially when I learned for myself that he wasn't) I would be punished emotionally and with blackmail ("If you don't believe in Santa then you won't get presents" etc.) and if that didn't work I would get the belt for daring to question by father (because it was implying that I was calling him a liar).

The thing is, my dad is an old school authoritarian parent and I would be severly punished for lying (usually physically and emotionally), and yet they insisted on keeping me believing this lie. I didn't care that Santa wasn't real, it was the sheer hypocrisy. And the beating. They beat me when I questioned their lie about Santa being real. Seriously.

So yeah, I'm still a little bitter about it.

[Jebediah]

My brother told me that the fruit in fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt was really blood (we must have been eating strawberry). To this day I don't eat that kind of yogurt.

[Old Viking]

It wasn't anything my parents said.  But they kept sending me to summer camp, then moving without telling me where.

[ironbite]

I once gave my sister OCD by telling her everything she touched deserved two touches cause she "owed" them or something.

Ironbite-think I may have fucked her up for life with that one.

[QueenofHearts]

Christianity



And that rice patties were made from bird brains. Now that I think of it, I can't remember eating a rice patty in the last two decades.

[Distind]

And that rice patties were made from bird brains. Now that I think of it, I can't remember eating a rice patty in the last two decades.

Don't worry, you haven't missed much.

Can't really nail any on my parents, but one particularly cruel upper classman told me that if you take a breath near a grave yard you could suck up a soul. I road the bus, I was the last kid off, there were no less than three graveyards on that route. All of which were located at intersections with stop signs.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

It wasn't anything my parents said.  But they kept sending me to summer camp, then moving without telling me where.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, thinking about various things I'd seen or read over the course of the day, this post came to mind and made me crack up so hard that I was jolted wide awake.

[e13]

It wasn't anything my parents said.  But they kept sending me to summer camp, then moving without telling me where.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, thinking about various things I'd seen or read over the course of the day, this post came to mind and made me crack up so hard that I was jolted wide awake.

Don't laugh too hard. That legitimately happened to one of my co-workers. It's why he isn't close to his parents. They apparently "forgot" he needed to know and though he'd magically be dropped off at their new home.

[Witchyjoshy]

That the Bible is the literal word of God.

And from my youth pastors...

That I'm an unworthy individual and should always be repenting of my sin, and that the rest of the world is to be pitied for not being Christian.

[Whore of Spamylon]

My sister, when in charge of making sure I got a bath, told me she would cut off my penis if I didn't wash it properly.

Threatening children with genital mutilation, even if one is lying, is NEVER...EVER...COOL!  I can't help but resent her still for that aspect of my life.

[Thejebusfire]

That the rapture would actually happen.

[Dantes Virgil]

When I was very, very little, my mother got rid of my pacifier and bottles and what not by telling me as she was laying me down for a nap one day that they all took a little trip down the road together, walked out of the gate and were never coming back.  She even did this little dance-y motion with her hands as she was describing it in a sing-song voice, LOL.  It's one of the few things I remember from my childhood, as it made me question whether any of the rest of my toys and books were going to decide "To hell with this, we're going on vacation!"

*edited to note "very early childhood."