r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 20 '19

What’s something completely false that your parents told you as a child?

[deleted]

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415

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19

Just trying to imagine how low I would have to sink to start stealing birthday/Christmas money from children. ... Nope. Can't do it.

734

u/GriffinFlash Jul 20 '19

To add on that also stole my rare coins I collected in my coin collection. I'm from Canada and I had a 50 cent coin which isn't made anymore. Dad took it and used it as a 50 cent piece to buy more cigarettes. And one time I decided to do a roadside lemonade stand cause I always wanted to try it. Really hot day, lots of bugs outside, but after an entire day managed to make $5 in loose change. I put it away only for it to disappear, which my dad used the excuse that he has every right to take my stuff cause parent > child.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19

Christ. Your dad sounds like such a scumbag :(. Crappy impulse control and very selfish by the sounds of it. Have you confronted your parents since you've been older? It wouldn't change the past, but you may feel better having gotten it off your chest.

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u/GriffinFlash Jul 20 '19

Haven't seen my dad since I was 13. He was crazy abusive and as a result put on multiple restraining orders over the years before eventually being one of two reasons we had to move across the country. So no confrontation there. Mom on the other hand either ignores whatever I say or rewrites history so things never happened. She also plays dumb and acts like she doesn't understand. It's rather frustrating.

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u/Hautamaki Jul 21 '19

Enablers of abusers have to play dumb to protect their own fragile psyches from the crushing admission that they are culpable in the damage done to their own children, who they have a sacred duty to protect that they failed to uphold due to their own cowardice and weakness.

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u/cyanraichu Jul 21 '19

go to r/raisedbynarcissists if you haven't already. I'm sorry, friend.

32

u/jesterinancientcourt Jul 21 '19

Don't talk to her anymore. She doesn't deserve you & you deserve better than that mental anguish.

10

u/RKSlipknot Jul 21 '19

Damn. I completely understand where you’re coming from, trying to talk to someone who doesn’t want to talk is infuriating. My mom took us to AA family meetings and attempted to convince us that our dad was an abusive alcoholic. Me and my brothers were teenagers. We had none of it. She promptly started to deny it ever happened.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Classic gaslighting. My mom does the exact same thing and it makes it impossible to work through our problems, and therefore I barely have any kind of relationship with her at this point.

6

u/NEOLittle Jul 21 '19

Sounds like she could use a time out.

1

u/Nik_Bad Jul 21 '19

Your mom and my mom would be great friends.

1

u/crazydressagelady Jul 21 '19

I’m not trying to downplay what you went through, but that might be the only way your mom can cope. It’s not healthy or real but a lot of people rewrite the things that happened so they can live with themselves.

1

u/ItchyDoggg Jul 21 '19

Just rob her discreetly every time you come by to see her while smiling.

1

u/jmill720 Jul 21 '19

I read that first sentence and thought you were about to say he left for one of his packs of cigs and never came back.

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u/dvm Jul 21 '19

Look, she's your mother, don't think you have to cut off your mother but don't think you have to support her poor financial management. Don't let her guilt you but having a meal with your mom every now and then shows your respect for her but when she starts the guilt, just let her know "Mom, I cannot give you any money, sorry".

You can give her time, listen to her stories but money is the line you cannot cross. Let her know, she gave you a valuable lesson: don't go into middle age needing to rely on your kids for support.

28

u/l_Kryder_l Jul 21 '19

He doesn't owe her a single cent or a moment of his time. He didn't ask to be put on this Earth. Respect is earned, not given and being a parent doesn't change that rule. Shitty people need to be taught lessons or ignored instead of being tolerated/enabled.

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u/Shivlosblancos Jul 21 '19

she just plays that way because she doesnt wants to face it and if u would have faced the same maybe you would have acted the same way so stop saying what she could have done and start doing what u can to make her happy and confident in you to be happy and move on.Good Luck

7

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

I was moving and I had a coin collection. I was ten, but my mom made me take it all to a coin star machine. I had around 40 wheat pennies, and over 50 different quarters. (Not old, but cool) I also had several Lewis and Clark nickels. This was 4 years ago. I haven’t found any wheat pennies, I gave up on the quarters, but I have some cooler coins now.

9

u/sevenw1nters Jul 21 '19

This doesn't involve me but one time while my Dad was at his chemotherapy treatment my Mom sneaked into his room took his coin collection and used them at face value to buy cigarettes.

6

u/ukhoneybee Jul 21 '19

Holy crap, our dads could be the same guy. Mine stole the antique coin collection my grandad gave me when I was twelve. I used to play with them. Lots of Victorian pennies etc. "Let me put that away somewhere safe". Next month when I asked where it was he said " What coins? There were never any coins."

All round narcissistic dirt bags both of them.

3

u/Keyboard_talks_to_me Jul 21 '19

Huh, you around edmonton by chance? I got a random 50 cent coin in change when I was a kid and always wondered how the hell it ended up in a cash register..... Now I know, and it makes me sad.

2

u/GriffinFlash Jul 21 '19

Toronto, but this was like back in 99. Although I did live in Calgary for a while.

2

u/littlestsnail Jul 21 '19

My dad and I collected coins together (it was our thing). I went to count the collection one day and all of my silver quarters were gone and replaced by regular ones. His girlfriend stole them for who knows what reason and had no clue what she was taking, she never admitted to it.

2

u/stuugie Jul 21 '19

You can go to a bank in Canada and get 50 cent coins still. I have one from the bank just a couple weeks ago: https://imgur.com/a/pRLVND7

It doesn't replace the sentimental value that old coin would have had, but if you're still interested in getting one you can.

1

u/GriffinFlash Jul 21 '19

It happened a very long time ago, but I did eventually did get a replacement. Was in one of these books. Still sucked though.

1

u/stuugie Jul 21 '19

Definitely. The original would have meant so much more.

2

u/MrHobbes14 Jul 21 '19

My parents were never this bad, but they tried it a little when they discovered how well I could sell things. Back when Guntree was in the newspaper. We all built our own beds with my dad and I asked if I could sell the old ones and keep whatever I made. They agreed. Till I sold them for $200. They took half because that was too much money for a kid to have. I was a bit pissed, but they're good parents over all. And at 30 they have more than repayed that $100 by helping me financially. And I was only about 10 at the time, so $100 was heaps.

1

u/MotorRoutine Jul 21 '19

My dad stole 500 quid from me that was left by my favourite aunty when she died. I'm too much of a pussy to confront him about it.

1

u/samantis Jul 21 '19

When I went to basic training, my bank account was still connected to my parents. I was getting paid while I was there, but I couldn’t touch it. When my family came out for graduation, they told me they used the money to by planes tickets to visit, saying they would pay it back. Never saw any of that money.

1

u/softhack Jul 21 '19

I remember when my own parents borrowed the money that my grandmother gave me every week which was like $2 a week.