3 Things My Parents Told Me Growing Up That Were Flat Out Lies

Every parent must do it at least once as they are raising their kids. You get asked a question by that young, inquisitive mind that wants to know it all, but you either don't know the answer or it's about such a sensitive subject that you just flat out lie to your kid.

My parents and grandparents were pros at this. Here are 3 things they told me that I later found out were complete lies.

1. The tall walls on the side of the highway are there because on the other side are nudist colonies.

This sounded completely logical to a young mind who didn't know any better. As an adult though, it made no sense. A nudist colony in Massachusetts? You'd think they'd move to a warmer climate. I still don't know why I wasn't just told these were sound barriers.

2. You can tell if a newborn kitten is a boy or a girl because under their tail is a B or a G.

We had a cat that had a litter of newborn kittens and my mother would turn them upside down and lift their tail. I asked what she was doing and she told me she was looking to see if they were a boy or a girl. I wouldn't let it go there, so I asked how she could tell. I guess I backed her into a corner and she told me there was a B for boy or a G for girl under their tail. Those kittens must have been turned upside down by me dozens of times and I never saw any letters.

3. You'll get dark circles under your eyes from sitting too close to the TV.

This one was from my grandfather. A lot of kids in the 70s would sit close to the TV because there was no such thing as a remote control. One day while my grandparents were visiting, my mother told me to not sit so close to the TV. My grandfather stepped in and pointed to underneath his eyes. "You see these dark circles," he said. "I got those from sitting too close to the TV when I was a kid." I never sat close to the TV ever again. It dawned on me as an adult that the TV hadn't even been invented when my grandfather was a kid. Well played.

What did your parents tell you as a kid that you found out later were absolute lies? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook.