Parents love harmless tricks, and kids often believe them wholeheartedly. One parent told their kids that vaccines worked best when injected into the eyeballs, making them terrified—until the nurse offered arm shots instead, and they suddenly couldn’t wait to roll up their sleeves. Another convinced their child that a toy monster stole any toys left out overnight, while someone else made their daughter believe horses “ate money,” a lie she believed until she was fourteen.

Some kids were scared into good behavior with imaginary punishments like “baby jail,” or believed buttons in cars could eject them from the seat if pressed. A mom joked that ears or foreheads turn colors when someone lies, and kids covered their ears or foreheads every time they fibbed. One family also convinced their son that Chuck E. Cheese could only be visited with a birthday party invitation.

There were also clever tricks to stop whining or bad behavior: a fake “complaint department” run by Chief Owakanoake in Calgary, an “ice cream truck” disguised as a “music truck,” and the idea that humans only had a limited number of words per year or a limited amount of exercise energy like a battery. Some parents even threatened kids with “invisible cops” or claimed mannequins were naughty children turned to plastic.

Not all lies were scary—some were magical or simply clever. A parent claimed their child was half mermaid, another convinced their kid that computers showed scary fates of unsupervised children. Others said cars wouldn’t start without seatbelts, leaving kids panicking when grandma proved otherwise. In the end, these hilarious lies show that parenting often requires equal parts creativity, bluffing, and humor.