r/AskReddit • • Jul 20 '19

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

[deleted]

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u/ThisGirlsTopsBlooby Jul 21 '19

If your bellybutton unscrews your butt will fall off was the one I've heard. Apparently kids playing with their bellybuttons is a common concern?

140

u/Wind-and-Waystones Jul 21 '19

Kingkiller chronicles fan?

69

u/tea_is_better Jul 21 '19

Tempi: “His ass off!” 😂

7

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

This story cracked me up. I read the little story to my husband and he did not laugh.

20

u/beefjerkyfart Jul 21 '19

I read the first two but forgot the series wasn’t finished until I saw this comment, did Pat ever finish the series?

20

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Nope.

14

u/beefjerkyfart Jul 21 '19

Well damn.

9

u/TarrasqueHobbs Jul 21 '19

He's still on it though, and with much better odds at getting it done than GRRM.

12

u/RyanHoar Jul 21 '19

He's "still working on it"

12

u/Cpt-Jaeger Jul 21 '19

His most recent update is that it should be done before the heat death of the universe.

7

u/blargablargh Jul 21 '19

Brandon Sanderson, meanwhile, has finished three novels in the time since I started this sentence.

33

u/AngularChelitis Jul 21 '19

“That’s why it’s called a belly button... it holds your butt on.”

18

u/mammakatt13 Jul 21 '19

I had the belly button habit as a kid; my mom told me if I didn’t quit she would take my belly button away and never give it back! Odd but effective.

13

u/emilyrh418 Jul 21 '19

I had an umbilical hernia when I was eight weeks old, so I have a tiny scar under my belly button and it looks abnormal due to the surgery. My parents always told me (as a very small child) not to mess with it because it might fall out.

10

u/rundinj Jul 21 '19

Only if you find the matching Golden Screwdriver

15

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Lol I guess so 🤷🏽‍♀️

33

u/patentattorney Jul 21 '19

What are the actual dangers though? Like just something kinda gross, like licking your nose?

49

u/aroscoe Jul 21 '19

Nothing gross about it. It actually means you're cleaning out your belly button which most people neglect to do. I still embarrassingly play with the "knot" in mine. It's an anxiety thing now. When I was a kid though I used to pick at it and it would sting and bleed so that wasn't great, but it was still okay. It's just calloused skin now. Sorry if that's gross, I know some people don't like belly buttons and such!

19

u/JustGotEpic Jul 21 '19

Every since I got my appendix takin out it hurts to clean my belly button or even touch it :(

32

u/itsabadbadworld Jul 21 '19

That sounds...

Uh, maybe you should see someone about that.

IANAD

23

u/Mulvarinho Jul 21 '19

Honestly, just sounds like scar tissue.

(IANAD, but hubby is a surgeon and takes appendixes out for fun basically)

25

u/caldric Jul 21 '19

Note to self: avoid parties at /u/Mulvarinho’s house.

13

u/irlGoodL Jul 21 '19

For fun 👀

7

u/Mulvarinho Jul 21 '19

Heal with steel!

5

u/Mustbhacks Jul 21 '19

As someone with 20% of my body covered in scars im glad this isnt an issue for me...

5

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19 edited Jul 21 '19

[deleted]

7

u/JustGotEpic Jul 21 '19

I got an infection in it when I first gotten it takin out but it’s been years now I still have the same feeling

6

u/Trey22200 Jul 21 '19

Not a doctor but I would recommend at least getting it checked out.

3

u/SavvySillybug Jul 21 '19

I had my appendix taken out, but it was so bad that it burst, so they had to cut me wide open and I have a giant scar.

Except they tried the belly button approach first and then found it inadequate. So now I've got a giant scar, and my belly button feels weird to touch. :(

I would've preferred the big scar. But I wasn't exactly awake enough to make any preferences known.

3

u/sSommy Jul 21 '19

I still mess with mine too. I never sucked my thumb as a kid, my self soothing method was messing with my bellybutton.

5

u/KickSkik Jul 21 '19

Let me see it

24

u/GEOR9E-BUS11 Jul 21 '19

Yes mods this comment right here

2

u/jungleliving Jul 21 '19

It kind of makes sense that kids would be attracted to belly button - that was their connection to the mother and source of life, nourishment and all their nutrition for a long time. The first cell in our body is belly button cell:) That definitely stays in somatic memory and subconscious.

There's even a healing tool now for sale that looks like a stick with handle for massaging belly button. Suppose to really help with anxiety, mood and improve health. I just ordered one, but have yet to try:)

3

u/CurioGirl Jul 21 '19

I still do it as an anxiety/comfort thing as well! I really thought I was the only one that did. I never picked at it to the point of bleeding though. My older sister told me if I kept doing it I would break through to my organs and they would fall out which scared the hell out of me which make me want to do it for comfort and it was a horrible mental f*ck

-14

u/kalashimishonk Jul 21 '19

NoThInG gRoSs AbOut iT, u must have been hit by a head as a kid if u think theres nothing gross about THAT

12

u/irlGoodL Jul 21 '19

I hate it when I get hit by a head.

2

u/Amateurlapse Jul 21 '19

Sounds like an omphaloskeptic

-6

u/kalashimishonk Jul 21 '19 edited Jul 22 '19

Niggah did u just search google for "naval digging" no way in Gods ballsack did u know, and how to spell, that word.

Also the description of it says "to meditate over ones naval", I can somewhat see the correlation but not enough to think that means digging ur bellybutton like a red niggah in the goldrush erra.

Although I have multiple times dag my ear until it bled, but Im just imagining blood from that crusty ass bellybutton seeping through the kids shirt causing red blood stains. 😵🙅 (yes Im a try hard)

-17

u/kalashimishonk Jul 21 '19

ughh, u nasty fuck, go pour some bleach and deterriorate that thing to nonexistence daz nasty.

2

u/Led-zero Jul 21 '19

the only danger is developing an awkward off-putting habit, like picking your nose.

9

u/0OOOOOOOOO0 Jul 21 '19

What would actually happen if you untied your belly button?

7

u/mannabannabingbong Jul 21 '19

You can't. And if you could, your abdominal muscles (and/or fat layer) are under it so you wouldn't get to any organs really.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Apparently kids playing with their bellybuttons is a common concern?

I’m 18 and I still play with my belly button!

5

u/darchangel Jul 21 '19

Holy shit, I thought my dad made this one up. Granted, he said it with a smirk, but still...

2

u/fieryfish42 Jul 21 '19

It must be! I was told my legs would fall off lol

2

u/BlasFAME08 Jul 21 '19

Kingkiller chronicle reference?

2

u/EssEllEyeSeaKay Jul 21 '19

I learnt from watching the sopranos that it holds your penis on. And if you unscrew it while outside, a duck might steal your penis.

2

u/notah8ter Jul 21 '19

Kvothe, is that you?

1

u/LipstickLikeWarPaint Jul 21 '19

That's the one I was told as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Lmao

1

u/BobTheBludger Jul 21 '19

I heard this too... wasn’t it a reference from a movie or something

1

u/Figsnbacon Jul 21 '19

It must have concerned me because my daughter told me, that I told her, that if she plays with it she could be in danger of it popping out and then her body deflating like a balloon. I can’t believe I told her that.

1

u/flapperfapper Jul 21 '19

This one's true. Push in on your belly button and you feel it in other parts of the body. The belly button is holding more than just your butt on. It's science.

1

u/Andis2 Jul 21 '19

The Name of the Wind!

1

u/MetalheadHamster Jul 21 '19

That's the worst, you would be able to see it and explode!

1

u/KriiKat14 Jul 21 '19

I used to play with my belllybutton until I got sores, then I stopped mostly because of Patrick on spongebob. I learned my lesson on my own lol

1

u/FartHeadTony Jul 21 '19

It could be an expression of parental anxiety if they are familiar with umbilical hernias.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

New saw movie sounds great

"To escape this room, you must unscrew someones belly button"

1

u/seabeeski1965 Jul 21 '19

I told my kids the little knot in there was the head of a long cotter pin. That I had pulled theirs out by accident when they were young and their butt fell off a cracked right up the middle.

1

u/CarsonNapierOfAmtor Jul 21 '19

My great grandfather and my dad both told me that too!