Millennials Shared The Lies Their Parents Told Them Growing Up, And I Think We All Need To Agree To Let These Lies Die Here And Now
Do you ever randomly reminisce about the lies you were told as a child that made absolutely no sense, yet you believed them anyway?
New Line Cinema / Via giphy.com
We recently shared a thread where millennials discussed the lies they were told growing up, started by Reddit user u/KnickerWolves. Well, BuzzFeed readers chimed in with even more absurd lies in the comments, so we decided to share even more!
Note: While obviously these things don't pertain only to millennials, they are the group the question was targeted to. Some responses were also pulled from comments made by the BuzzFeed Community and this Reddit thread.
So without further ado, here are just 36 of the lies millennials were always told growing up:
1."I was told that the AIDS virus was smaller than the pores in a latex condom, so you had to wait until you were married to have sex."
"Otherwise, you could get AIDS even with a condom."
2."That marriage is about friendship, and sex isn't particularly important. Those were the values my parents and teachers instilled in me."
"Then I ended up in a marriage that was the perfect friendship, but there just wasn't chemistry in the sex. It turns out you can have as many friends as you want, but in most marriages, your spouse is the only one you can have sex with. So it's pretty important that you're satisfied with the intimate part of your relationship."
3."Get a bachelor's degree and you are set for life as far as a job or career is concerned."
4."I was told to get a STEM degree and I'd be set, especially because I was a girl."
"I graduated with a biology degree from a very good college, and I barely make ends meet. The year I graduated, there were 22 people graduating for every one job created. STEM only pays if it's technology or engineering."
5."My mom told me girls don't masturbate, lust, get horny, feel pleasure, or want to do anything else that men want to do. All men are horndogs who only want one thing, and all women hate them for it."
"This made me hate myself for being male, something I struggle with to this day. To make matters worse, I was the oldest of three boys until high school, when my little sister was born. My mother was constantly reminding me how badly she wanted a girl, how much better girls are, why boys are useless, etc., and I believed all of it."
6."The biggest lie we were ever told was that we needed to get a desk job to be successful and that it's shameful to work a trade job."
"Fewer millennials are going into skilled trades or going to trade schools. Those that do are finding they can live very comfortably, and there's no glass ceiling. You can work your way up and live very well. Also, with fewer and fewer people going into trades, the cost of skilled labor in the future will be very high. People will be able to name their prices."
7."My nanna told me that the 'I'm feeling lucky' button on Google would put a virus on the computer."
HBO / Via giphy.com
"I'm honestly not even sure what it does."
8."That getting good grades in college will get you a job. Bullshit! What gets you a job are internships, volunteering, paid work experiences, and really good connections because employers want someone they know can do the job, or learn it quickly."
"I've had several friends from college who were in honors programs and did nothing but study and get good grades but can't find full-time work. A great college GPA is only a great thing if you plan on getting a postgraduate education, you're trying to get a nice internship, or your major is in a super-in-demand field."
9."Be loyal to your company. They'll take care of you."
NBC / Via giphy.com
"I hate the loyalty crap. Work your ass off for years and a raise is never in the budget. You prove yourself a reliable, competent employee, and when a position opens up, they'll hire out instead of cross-train. The moment things look bleak, you'll get laid off because you're not the manager's best friend's brother-in-law's son, despite having more experience and taking a fraction of the sick/vacation time."
10."I was told that sex was a reward gifted by women to be bestowed upon deserving men."
"Growing up, it was awkward (and incredibly embarrassing) to understand that women can enjoy and want sex just as much as men."
11.Or this: "Men are always ready to have sex at any moment, and if they aren't, it obviously means there's something wrong with you or they're cheating on you."
"Just because it's anecdotally true for some doesn't mean it's a certainty. Also, all guys will only want sex from you all the time. That kind of thinking is harmful to a young woman's sexual-psychological development."
12."That you have to be able to do long multiplication and division all the time, and it's not like you're always going to be walking around with a calculator in your pocket."
"Sure, it's great if you have the sort of mind that loves numbers and easily understands math, but it's nowhere near as necessary as we were led to believe."
13."In elementary school during the 1990s to early 2000s, they taught us that once we reached high school and college, we were going to be expected to write in cursive for all assignments and essays."
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"Upon sophomore year in high school, having spent the last 10 years perfecting my handwriting, typing and MLA format had already become the new black, so to speak."
14."My mom told me from a young age that girls don't poop or fart, and thus, I was absolutely terrified to do either in public even if I desperately needed to. It doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that it caused such anxiety that I became constipated and couldn't poop, so it just started building up inside me, causing me to vomit after meals and go to the ER."
NBC / Via giphy.com
"It was honest to god probably some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. Took an X-ray — just a ton of poop. That began my dairy-free diet, as well as having to take a shot of mineral oil a few times a day. This whole ordeal lasted about three months; I was 9. My teachers got involved, told me that if I needed to poop, they would 'send me to the office' with a fake assignment so nobody would question where I was/make fun of me for pooping. Eventually I got over the sickness but not the fear. Then I was able to poop in public when I was older. And when I turned 20, I finally was able to joke about it and go poop when I needed to because of friends. I still can’t fart in front of my boyfriend, though. I did once while I was drunk, and he didn’t care. I do, though.”
15."That we would have flying cars by now."
—u/[deleted]
16."That unless I got perfect grades, I wouldn't be able to go to college unless I also had a full-time job."
"Instead, there are financial aid options for students from low-income families and student loans that let me pay for classes and rent. Also, I was told that university courses were just like high school classes, but more work every week and harder. It turns out that college is vastly different and much more to my liking."—u/VinumCupio
17."That we'd be able to afford to buy a house when we grew up if we worked really hard and got good jobs."
"Turns out the freaking older generations bought them all and wanted to lease them. And when one goes on the market, they want to buy investment properties, or foreign investors make cash offers above the asking price. How do we compete with that?"
18."My grandpa told me that the world was in black and white before color TV existed."
19."Do it — if you don't, this will go on your permanent record."
20."As kids, we were told that when the ice cream man came around in his van, wait to hear if he plays the song. If he does, that means he's got no ice cream left."
Giphy / Via giphy.com
"The cruelty."
21."That you need to define yourself by your job."
"We live in a culture of dream jobs or people asking, 'What's your job?' when they meet you. My work is cool, but it's just a job. My hobbies are what I define myself around."
22."The biggest lie of my lifetime was that all plastic is recyclable. It isn't and it hasn't been. Decades' worth of plastic that I thought was being recycled was actually being shipped overseas to be buried or burned."
"Plastics recycling is THE great lie of our age."
23."That everyone will go to college, finish by 21, and already be engaged and married soon after."
"Then, within like two years of working, they're already buying a house with three kids by 25. I'm 26 and just got engaged, I'm only now getting a career in my field, and I'm still living with my parents after living away for like a year."
24."This isn't that bad, but I was always told that the emergency lights in a car were child ejection systems."
"So if I was acting bad or my siblings were, my parents would threaten to eject us from a car the way small military planes eject pilots. And when I got my own car, I was so scared to use it until my husband explained what it was. I felt very dumb."
25."That turning on the lights in the car was illegal."
26."That if I don't have my life figured out by the time I'm 25, then I have some serious problems."
27."When I was young, I was told that if I played with my belly button, it would unravel and my insides would fall out."
"Obviously, I don’t believe that anymore, but I still have this irrational fear of my belly button being touched. Some people know this and try to tickle me there and think it’s funny that I freak out."
28."That the Dewey Decimal System is essential and that I would need to learn it to be successful in life."
"I haven't been in a library in years."
29."That money doesn't buy happiness."
"Sorry, folks. But in the world I’m currently living in, it absolutely does."
30."I was told that I would need to be in a romantic relationship to be happy. It turns out that I don't."
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31."I was told that student loans were GOOD debt, and they would actually benefit me by showing I went to college."
32."There was a big fish that lived in the canal behind my house, and I was told that it hunted for the feet of children, so you should never walk on the banks of the canal because then it will grab your feet and eat you."
33."That chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years if you swallow it."
34."That student loans are normal, so don't be afraid to go into debt."
Now This News / Via giphy.com
35."The entire food pyramid. Eat little to no fats and make sure you eat a fuckton of bread and pasta every day...that's stupid."
"And yes, I know South Park had an episode on this too."
36.And finally, "That it will all make sense when you're older."
NBC / Via giphy.com
"Fuck that; everything makes even less sense. Now I'm older and expected to be independent and STILL don't understand half the shit I need to accomplish that successfully."
Do you have any lies that you were told growing up that have impacted the way you live to this day? Feel free to drop them in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
