Ever wonder if our parents simply enjoyed scaring us about the future? Ever wonder what's on that "permanent record?"
Get-off-my-wave asked: What dire warning from your parents turned out to be bullsh*t?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
It's the devil in ya.
I was born left-handed. My pops used to smack me if I used my left hand, in essence forcing me to be right-handed. I had to constantly remind myself to use the hand with my birthmark to avoid smacks. As an adult I asked my pops why he forced me to be right-handed and he gave some tepid response about 'when youre left handed youll have a tendency to pull that way when youre driving exposing you to oncoming traffic'
Sounded like bullsh*t to me, and is confirmed by all the left hand driver is the world that dont spontaneously drive into oncoming traffic. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to know. For reference, my pops is an old school vietnamese dude. I feel like its a cultural thing, but I was raised american and have no f*cking idea.
I did a real estate closing a few years ago for a recent middle-aged Chinese immigrant. She looked at me writing with wide eyes, and said, "You're left handed! So am I!!!"
I was confused because she was writing with her right hand, so I asked, and she said that in China, she wasn't allowed to wright with her left land and that they'd smack her when she tried.
My mother would be slapped for using her left hand as a young girl. Apparently it was considered a sign of the devil.
Why not both?
That my two choices in life were either Harvard or McDonald's. Sheesh. Bit of a gray area in between those two extremes.
So, can I get fries with that?
You may get fries with your Masters Degree.
Mom's not playing around.
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That if I used one brand of shampoo and a different brand of conditioner that my hair would fall out. Also when I was five or six I asked what would happen if you went the opposite way that you turned the turn signal, my mom told me the car would explode and kill us. Not sure why she told me that sh*t.
Because it was hilarious to watch the rising panic in your eyes as she signaled right, then twitched the wheel left.
How do you know my mom so well? Immediately after telling me that she veered the opposite way of the turn signal. I still remember that cry lol. She's got a dark sense of humor.
Yeah, that really came in handy.
I would be unemployable if I didn't learn cursive handwriting. Parents and teachers made me think that every job interview would have a cursive test in which they would measure the loops on the L's or something.
Seriously have never once used cursive since like taking the ACT.
It was on the ACT? Weird.
My public schooling spanned the 2000s, so we were forced to learn cursive in 3rd grade, got told it was the way of the world, then started learning to type in class instead starting the next year.
In other news, I always got told that cursive was the faster way to write.... But it always took me like 4x as long to write in cursive.
That's pretty funny.
When you press the red button with the triangle in the car all the doors fall off.
When teaching the class how to use the classroom computer, my 1st grade teacher told us all that if we clicked the trash can icon on the desktop, it would make the computer explode and we would get in a lot of trouble.
Hiding your extracurricular porn in the recycle bin? Interesting strategy.
Triggered.
"We can't pay $1 to go in the haunted house because they might not have a bathroom in there. What if you have to go to the bathroom?"
Just admit you're cheap, Dad.
I'd much rather have this than my experience growing up... my dad would ALWAYS complain at ticket booths about how it was free that one day so it should be free today. Or he would ask for some discount that didn't apply to him, or claim to have a coupon that maybe he had at one point, or is expired now.
We would have escalating levels of managers come and talk to us and he would keep doing it. He made my mom cry sometimes, I was just embarrassed. He sees it as "good business sense, they think you're stupid if you don't ask for a discount". He doesn't realize this isn't a bazaar, he doesn't even come from a country where that's normal.
The worst part about all this? We could afford it. My dad just hates paying for experiences and would rather go shopping or do ANYTHING else.
Edit: I put it in the story because I knew it would come up but it seems to have been glossed over by many. Again, he doesn't even come from a country where bartering/haggling is commonplace, at least not in large cities where my family is from. The most you can do is maybe ask for a bulk discount if you're at an independent stall in a market or something, which is something I'm not against and it doesn't hurt to ask; however, my dad takes it a step further and feels that just because he's him, he should get greater discounts/free things.
When I worked in the service industry, I could never figure out why people would go through all that hassle just to save a couple of dollars. Isn't your time and dignity worth two whole dollars?
Not to my dad. He would rather act a fool and save ONE DOLLAR.
We were in his home country one time, at a place that charged the equivalent of $1 USD for parking/entrance. As soon as we pull up to the guy my dad starts his spiel and I just roll down the window (I'm sitting right behind him) and hand the guy the money while saying I got it. Guy lets us in, dad starts saying he was trying to save us money and I shouldn't have done that. My mom, for once, didn't enable him and said she's sick of that, it's a business and they need to make money too... and she's not in the mood to be embarrassed today.
It happened to be at almost the exact same place where we had the worst of those confrontations with managers, only 20+ years later.
Like little starchy sprinkles.
My mom warned me as a kid that eating the loose pieces of dried ramen from the pack would make me deathly ill.
I kept doing it with no problems. One day she said that in front of my dad when I was a teen and he just gave her this "wtf are you talking about" look.
I was told it would give you worms.
Those are the best bits.
Belly button BS.
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"If you unscrew your belly button your bum will fall off."
I did my best to avoid screwdrivers for a large part of my childhood because I lacked the will power not to stuff them into my belly button. I was terrified at the thought of losing my bum but intrigued by the possibility.
Your comment is putting me to tears. But I don't understand, were you obsessed with sticking screwdrivers in your belly button before or after your mom father told you that?
Not OP but I was fascinated with my belly button. I remember that I kept sticking things in there.
Life's hard if you're a d*ck.
My ex-stepdad owned a restaurant where I worked as a busboy when I was a teenager. He was always very tough on me, berating my work, etc. While telling me that he was going easy on me and when I got a job in the "Real world" (his favorite phrase) my bosses would be so much tougher on me.
I quit a month before my 16th birthday and went to work at the local Dairy Queen and found out he was full of sh*t. My mom left him shortly after that, thankfully.
Worked at an ice cream shop for my first job and told people how cruel and shady the managers/owner are. "That's just what jobs are like" "you have an easy job" "it only gets worse." I was contemplating suicide b/c I was bullied by management. Once a manager pushed me and started talking sh*t on my mom I quit. Turns out literally everywhere else is a much better work environment and you shouldn't feel like crying or throwing up when going into work.
Edit: thanks for the kind comments everyone! I did not expect this to blow up as much as it did
This was so scary.
If you get in trouble at school it will go on your PERMANENT RECORD and ruin your life.
Not once has anyone, from college admissions to prospective employers to loan officers, so much as mentioned the legendary PERMANENT RECORD.
I went back to my old high school a year after I graduated and asked to see what was in my Permanent Record...and they'd already thrown it away.
It was only permanent temporarily.
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run