Remember when you were a kid, and your mom or dad would come out with something absolutely ridiculous that you’d fully believe? Just in case you’ve forgotten about the gems our parents used to sell to us as the truth, here are a few of the best.

1. “You’ll get square eyes from watching TV”

What on earth did this even mean? The worst that would happen from watching too much TV would be eye-strain and a seriously sluggish brain. The fact that we genuinely believed our eyes could turn square from watching TV is just bizarre.

2. “If you swallow gum, it’ll stay inside you for 7 years”

Look, swallowing gum is risky, as it could get stuck in your airways, but it’s not going to sit inside you if you do happen to accidentally gulp it down. It’ll just pass through your stomach along with the rest of your food.

3. “Don’t eat the seeds, or they’ll grow in your stomach”

It was only when we grew up and realized that the likes of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are considered a popular breakfast topping that we questioned this particular claim. Fair enough, eating the seeds of fruit with the fruit probably doesn’t taste great, but it’s not dangerous.

4. “Don’t pull that face – it’ll stay like that forever”

This was quite clearly just a trick our parents used to stop us from pulling the pouting tantrum face. As far as we’re aware, it’s physically impossible for your face to get stuck in one expression.

5. “If you sneeze with your eyes open, they’ll fall out”

If anyone was ever a bad*ss as a kid and tried sneezing with their eyes open, they probably just experienced a bit of uncomfortable pressure. It’s safe to say that our eyes are a bit more strongly attached to our eye sockets than our parents gave them credit for.

6. “Reading in the dark will make your eyesight go bad”

Correction: reading in the dark will cause eye strain. There’s no way that eye strain can lead to a decline in vision. Still, who was reading in the dark as a kid anyway?

7. “Don’t eat that – it’ll make you hyper”

There’s not a lot of truth in the fact that certain sugary foods make kids hyper, and yet our parents were always convinced of it. Everything from blue smarties to Haribo candy was out of the question before bedtime. And if we ever did act up, the chocolate we’d eaten earlier was immediately blamed.

8. “Eat your carrots, they’ll help you see in the dark”

This is another strange one that actually makes no sense. Carrots help our bodies to produce vitamin A, which we need as protection against age-related eye disease like macular degeneration. But nothing can help you take on the superpower of night vision.

9. “Pick it up quick – 5 second rule”

Remember when you dropped something on the floor, and your parents would tell you to grab it, quick, because it was okay to eat if it had spent less than 5 seconds on the floor? There’s not actually a lot of sense in this – imagine dropping a chip down the back of the freezer and still eating it before 5 seconds.

10. “You need to be punished – go and have a nap”

As if there was actually a time when being forced to take a nap was considered a punishment. We wish our work bosses would adopt this rule.

11. “You should wash your hair until it’s squeaky clean”

Actually, washing your hair too much causes it to produce an excess of oil to make up for the oil you keep getting rid of, which makes your hair greasier than if you’d have been a bit more lenient with your washing schedule.

12. “Don’t worry, you’ll have it all figured out when you’re an adult”

Well, this is just laughable. Most of us in our twenties still don’t know what we’re doing with our lives. We’re not sure how our parents were so confident in our ability to “figure it out” by the time we reached legal adulthood.

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Source: Shareably