3 ladybugs Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My son likes to sleep with his head under his sheet. I don't like this, but I am not the one that puts him to bed. I have told DH to get him to stop it, but he still does it. Anyway, this causes him to think that he has itches all the time. Then he stays up. So in an effort to combat this, we have taken to giving him "itch medicine" which is artificial maple syrup in a teaspoon. I know it is awful but it works as he thinks he is getting something and reality he is just sleeping with his head out of the sheet. :) So what silly things have you convinced your child of? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne115 Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My oldest daughter was scared to death of bugs. She still really hates them. One night, she woke up and there was a bug in her room. She was hysterically crying. I got the bug out, but she still wouldn't go to sleep. Out of desperation, I grabbed the Lysol and sprayed it in her room. I told her it was bug spray. We had to spray her room for about a month afterwards, but it worked like a charm!! Sometimes you just have to get creative! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 That I was a back-up Gladiator on American Gladiator when I was in college. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Not me, but FIL hated when DH and his sisters would get peanut butter in the jelly jar by using the same knife. So he told them that if you left peanut butter in the jelly jar, it would make poison. DH's sister believed this till she was in her 20s. :lol: 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My three year old bumped his head yesterday while we were watching his siblings at tumbling. He wanted a bandaid and we asked at the desk but they didn't have one; we ended up putting a piece of masking take on his forehead and calling it a bandaid and he was perfectly happy. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoobie Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 That DH was really 10 years older than he said and just very sensitive about his age. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne in CA Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I convinced my son that the Volt Monster lived in electrical outlets so that he would leave them alone. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Oldest dd's favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz. We convinced her that when Dorothy opened the door after the tornado that that was the exact moment that color was invented in the world. That up until that time, the whole world was black and white and wasn't it amazing that they captured that moment on film! She talked about it a lot actually. Like dd would get a new outfit and she'd say how glad she was that all her clothes weren't black, white, or gray. Well....when she was finishing kindergarten her teacher let all the kids with summer birthdays bring treats the last week of school because she felt bad that those kids wouldn't get to do that like the other kids did. I made a Wizard of Oz cake and dropped it off. And my daughter told her teacher all about when color was invented. We weren't unique- I know a couple other parents who did that. But when the k teacher asked me about it, me saying that other people did it wasn't going to cut it. That was one awkward conversation.g 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okra Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I told my kids that the hazard button in the car would catapult the seats out of the car. Don't want to ever touch that button. It took them a while to figure it out. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athomeontheprairie Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When we moved life kids were terrified of monsters. Dh took an old light sensor box for an outdoor light and screwed it to the wall above their bed and told them it was a monster alarm. It would sound if ever a monster came in the house. My kids slept soundly after that. Needless to say, the alarm never sounded. It took about 3 years for our girls to question whether or not it was real :-) 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Everyone has an Uncle Jim. There are several in both my family and in my husband's. He asked a few other kids about it and they, too, had an Uncle Jim. I think there might be something going on... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjffkj Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When my oldest was just shy of 2 years old he spent the night with my mil and had juice for the first time. For a few days he refused to drink water and insisted on juice. Well that wasn't going to happen so I offered him agua juice. He guzzled it down and for about a year would refuse water but agua juice was very much wanted. Agua juice equals water 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athomeontheprairie Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Everyone has an Uncle Jim. There are several in both my family and in my husband's. He asked a few other kids about it and they, too, had an Uncle Jim. I think there might be something going on... Both myself and dh have uncle Jim's :-) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Oldest dd was afraid of monsters at night. I boiled a pot of water that had cinnamon sticks and orange peels in it, then carried it into her room and blessed the 4 corners of her room and in her closet. Then we made a special pillow that had different types of buttons sewn on and that was her bedtime talisman. I guess this was more a pagan thing than something I had to convince her of, but it worked. She was happy to have one small nightlight in her room but she never complained about monsters again. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Everyone has an Uncle Jim. There are several in both my family and in my husband's. He asked a few other kids about it and they, too, had an Uncle Jim. I think there might be something going on... Our Uncle Jim lives right next door :) We convinced our kids that pretty much all meat was chicken. (They went through a phase where they wouldn't eating any meat unless I said it was chicken). This one is a running joke now that they kind of believed when they were little. They used to have a brother George..... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isaac_megan Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 DS loves reptiles and always has. DD not so much. When they were 3 and 2, he put on an impromptu "puppet show" for her. He had an alligator puppet and walked it along the back of the couch and this freaked her out- I mean freaked- she was beside herself with fear over that little fuzzy alligator. He was so offended that he told her alligators from the creek nearby were going to come get her (this was in Houston and we always had reports of alligators). I couldn't convince her otherwise so I had to make special alligator-proof curtains for her windows. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 You guys, I'm feeling a lot better reading these stories. I'm not the only (awful) parent who tricked my kids. Plus, your stories are hilarious! I have grandkids now and I'm taking notes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 ladybugs Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 DS loves reptiles and always has. DD not so much. When they were 3 and 2, he put on an impromptu "puppet show" for her. He had an alligator puppet and walked it along the back of the couch and this freaked her out- I mean freaked- she was beside herself with fear over that little fuzzy alligator. He was so offended that he told her alligators from the creek nearby were going to come get her (this was in Houston and we always had reports of alligators). I couldn't convince her otherwise so I had to make special alligator-proof curtains for her windows. My mom leaves the back door to her house open so her dog can go out to do his business. She has a curtain that she pulls across that has an opening just big enough for her dog (old english sheepdog) to get through. Her curtains are not immune though. One day she came home and found a pelican in her living room! They had clearly went through her "special" curtains. :giggle: Your story reminded me of that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scholastica Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 That we have an invisible ornament for the Christmas Tree. The honor of hanging it with Dad rotates through the children every year. It came about when we were done putting away the decorations and had one small ornament box leftover and no ornament to go in it. So, my dh wrote "Invisible Ornament" on the box and packed it away with the rest. The next year it was found as we decorated and he started the tradition with our then 3 yo dd. On average, they've been about 8 or 9 before they figure it out. It helps that the big kids play along. Also, that I have "Special Mommy Powers". 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I didn't do this but a friend convinced his kids that the TV was broken and ALL the TV repair people had gone on strike so no TV. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 The only thing I did was NOT to correct the cute way my dc mispronounced words. I also put a bounty on the head of anyone who told them the right way to say these. One example: one child said "thinish" for "finish". Then this dc learned to read and saw "finish" in a book and came to me and said, "Mom, it's 'finish', not 'thinish'." I had to fess up. It was so cute, though! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My sanity. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Home'scool Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I used to pretend that the pool had a switch that instantly warmed up the water. When they would go swimming and complain the water was too cold I would go over to the filter, fiddle around a little, and then say "Ok, its warming up now!" They always swam quite happily after that! One time my father-in-law had a t-shirt on so you could only see the chain part of his necklace up by his neck. One of my kids asked what that was and I said "That is the zipper for Grandpa's head. Do you want to see him unzip his head?" "Noooooooo!!!!" but boy did they stare at that chain for a long long time haha 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We go to the beach every year. When my oldest was about 4 or 5 he really loved sharks so had read lots of books about them and watched tons of science videos. But that made him scared to go into the water at the beach, something he had previously LOVED. He wouldn't even go in ankle deep. One day I saw some dolphins swimming very close to the shore and told him that if the dolphins were there it meant there were no sharks because dolphins had a special "shark sense". He believed me and immediately started swimming again. We were just at the beach last week and he was laughing about that story. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Home'scool Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Oh, and this one .... When we would be outside and a bee would come flying around them and they would start screaming, I would say "Oh, hey look! It's Jimmy the Bee! Hey Jimmy, I haven't seen you in a while! Don't be scared girls, it's just Jimmy!" That would calm them down haha. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I have explained that I never, ever allow monsters in my house. Nope, there are no monsters in your closet, because I NEVER allow monsters. They are banned. The kids think I'm a bad a** and they believe it! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacquelyn in NC Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When my son was almost 3, I knew he was ready to be potty trained. So, I told him that when kids turned three, they stopped using diapers and we went and bought underwear as part of his birthday preparation. He totally believed me, and the day before his third birthday was his last daytime diaper. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippen Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When my cousin was little, my family was visiting and at one breakfast toast came out of the toaster near burnt. My dad told him that cowboys like it that way. To this day--my cousin who is now in his 60's--still prefers his toast very dark. Unbeknownst to me, my husband told my son that pepperoni was rhinoceros meat. I don't know how long he believed that one. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We have a fairy door that looks just like our front door. A la UFO (Urban Fairies Operations, in Ann Arbor). Okay, we have several doors - inside and out. And the fairies decorate for holidays, too. :leaving: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolt. Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 1. That running appliances and using lights unnessisarily "uses up electrons" -- from when they were too little to understand much about actual electricity generation and distribution, but I needed them to understand it as some form of being wasteful. 2. That there really is a drink called "splash" 95% water with a splash of juice. 3. When they were very little, that "Grandma" was a category of person: any and all elderly women... Not actually a relationship that involved them. I didn't do that on purpose, but it was hand for a while. 4. That their cute mispronunciations of difficult words (at various ages) are just fine. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm not comfortable lying, in any way, to my kids. But I have a very sensitive conscience on that point, to where I cannot joke or tease in a manner I feel is representing things falsely. My husband has no such compunction. He told our girls if they didn't put on lotion after bath they'd turn into alligators. I'm pretty sure he only indicated, initially, that it would be because their eczema prone skin would flare up, but that part somehow dropped off in the intervening years :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
applethyme Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When my nice was little we told her that there was a "binky fairy" that came and took pacifiers to give to new babies and that when it was time for the fairy to take the pacifiers they would leave a special basket and we had to gather them all and put them on the front porch and the next day the pacifiers would be gone but a special present would be left for her. It worked wonderfully. Ds is always afraid that there are monsters in his room. I bought an all natural lavender room spray and called it "monster spray." If its a rough day I not only spray his room but his clothes and bed too. About 10 minutes after our "monster extermination" he is asleep. DD had to have her own spray so hers is rosemary and lemon. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 There's a kernel of truth to this one: Raw eggs have a small risk of salmonella which can make you sick. Homemade cookie dough has raw eggs in it. It's okay for Mommy to eat raw cookie dough because she is an adult and has a stronger immune system, but little kids can't eat raw cookie dough. It worked for a few years. Now we all risk salmonella together (none of us has ever gotten sick from eating raw cookie dough. Fat maybe, but not sick). 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knoxinsox Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My son is a very picky, selective eater and for a long time the only meat he would eat was lunchmeat ham. So we had turkey ham, chicken ham, ham ham and beef ham. They were all ham and he ate ham. Now he can read labels and its back to only ham from Sam's Club. Apparently, some of this has stuck in the kids heads. Last night, my daughter asked me if a turkey was a kind of pig. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 DH's mom had her kids convinced that Florida had passed a sales tax on things beginning with the letter C (because most junk foods are taxed, but other food items aren't, and coke, cookies, candy, and chips all begin with C). My husband said it took him quite awhile to realize that it was actually a tax on specific foods, not on the letter it began with. MIL apparently enjoyed things like that with her kids. (I wish DD had gotten to know her-she died before DD was born). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm not comfortable lying, in any way, to my kids. But I have a very sensitive conscience on that point, to where I cannot joke or tease in a manner I feel is representing things falsely. My husband has no such compunction. He told our girls if they didn't put on lotion after bath they'd turn into alligators. I'm pretty sure he only indicated, initially, that it would be because their eczema prone skin would flare up, but that part somehow dropped off in the intervening years :lol: My DD would never put lotion on again! She'd love to grow scales... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkTulip Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Similar to the "binky fairy," we had a "diaper fairy" that came in the night and took away all the diapers. She left cool Lightning McQueen underwear, apple juice (to drink a lot - encouraging the need to go), and M&Ms - rewards for actually going. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We have a Halloween Fairy, who will bring a smallish toy or other desired item in exchange for the bulk of their Halloween candy. :D (She's rather small, so she can only carry something that costs about $20.) 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We told my son that the huge bannana farm in front of my daughter's school was where the school sent the kids in detention. They had to cut bannanas as their punishment. We told him we had ordered a "nose guard" that wrapped around your head and prevented you from picking your nose. We told him that we had ordered a "fart bag" that caught farts so they wouldn't stink up the car. He believed it all! Still gets mad when he remembers we tricked him! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We have a Halloween Fairy, who will bring a smallish toy or other desired item in exchange for the bulk of their Halloween candy. :D (She's rather small, so she can only carry something that costs about $20.) Oh! I forgot about that one! We have the Switch Witch. :) She comes to kids with food allergies, and switches out their bags of candy for safe treats and small toys. One year we were at Great Wolf Lodge on Halloween, and they have a witch that will come to your room and deliver a bag of goodies. We told them about the Switch Witch and they played along! So my kids think they've actually met the Switch Witch. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trulycrabby Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Just the one about the guy who comes down the chimney with glee; I am really dreading the day he figures it out. :o 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm not comfortable lying, in any way, to my kids. But I have a very sensitive conscience on that point, to where I cannot joke or tease in a manner I feel is representing things falsely. My husband has no such compunction. He told our girls if they didn't put on lotion after bath they'd turn into alligators. I'm pretty sure he only indicated, initially, that it would be because their eczema prone skin would flare up, but that part somehow dropped off in the intervening years :lol: I'm pretty much like Arctic Mama, right down to using the word compunction. (And I found that this type of humor doesn't always translate with my kids, so that's a good fit.) But you all sound like my great-aunt. She's CRAZY! I'm getting a chuckle out of the stories. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I'm not comfortable lying, in any way, to my kids. :iagree: However, one of my dc was absolutely convinced that Clifford the Big Red Dog was in the Bible because a nursery worker had read a Clifford book in church. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renthead Mommy Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 From three to five, we lived in San Antonio. On the service road, to get off the main road (the outer loop) was a Chuck E. Cheese. We had to drive by this EVERY SINGLE TIME we went to the food store or the Home Depot. Because he had only been to one once or twice befor for a birthday party, I told him you could only go into CEC with a birthday party invitation, and no one was having a party... Stayed out of that hell while living there! (and then went to Japan and there are non CEC's there so that solved that problem! ) 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 I told little my sister that mirrors would wear out eventually. That they could only be looked into for so long before they stopped working. That it wasn't a big deal with new mirrors but we had this big older mirror hanging up in the hall and I told her not to use it too much. My kids are way too cynical now for me to lie to them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Oh, I told my kids that there was a Mom Book that they handed out at the hospital when you have a baby. That it was illegal to show it to children and that it had all kinds of secrets in it. This lie came about because my oldest was always demanding to know my source of information. Well, how do you know what you know? Can you remember where you learned every single thing? She was the type of kid that asked millions of questions too, usually followed up with "Where did you learn that?" Sometimes I said, "My mother told me." And sometimes I said, "I read it in a book." And sometimes I said, "I learned it in school." But sometimes I said, "The Mom Book." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 When my nice was little we told her that there was a "binky fairy" that came and took pacifiers to give to new babies and that when it was time for the fairy to take the pacifiers they would leave a special basket and we had to gather them all and put them on the front porch and the next day the pacifiers would be gone but a special present would be left for her. It worked wonderfully. Ds is always afraid that there are monsters in his room. I bought an all natural lavender room spray and called it "monster spray." If its a rough day I not only spray his room but his clothes and bed too. About 10 minutes after our "monster extermination" he is asleep. DD had to have her own spray so hers is rosemary and lemon. We used "baby Santa" with dd1, who gave the pacis to little babies who didn't have any, and baby Santa left her presents :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My grandfather was missing half of one thumb. We asked him a hundred times what happened and he said it was eaten by an alligator. When we were little, we totally believed it, but slowly started to question it, but couldn't get any other answer out of him. My grandmother told me after he died it lost it in an accident working at a shoe factory. :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmseB Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 My dad almost, almost has my kids convinced that there are clowns hiding in Yellowstone National Park. Like leprechauns. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimom Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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