10 Half-True Stories Told by Parents That Are Actually Quite Heartwarming

Parents might just be the biggest liars.

Most of the time, parents lie for convenience –  telling kids that the toy shop is closed (at freaking 11 am) or telling them that the ice cream truck music means that they’ve sold out of ice cream….

But sometimes, underneath white lies – or half truths as I like to call them – are heartwarming stories that are fodder for nostalgia.

1. Golden Gramps

When I was a kid we would take long family road trips to Ohio to visit my grandparents. I absolutely loved these trips – my grandparents had all sorts of cool stuff in the house, two big apple trees in the front yard, and they lived next to a train track.

My grandpa also loved Golden Grahams. Every time my brothers and I would visit, he would open his cupboard to reveals four or five boxes of Golden Grahams, explaining how much he loved them and that he got some extra boxes just because we were visiting. I always thought it was so cool that my grandpa – who was, you know, old – had the same favorite cereal as me. I would always feast on cereal every time we went to visit.

Of course, years after he died, I was relating this story to someone and the obvious dawned on me. Later I asked my mother if grandpa even liked Golden Grahams, and she got this big smile on her face, looked a little sad, and said “No… but he knew you did.” – ApesInSpace

2. Bedtime Confusion

My mom used to turn the clocks forward when I had sleepovers at her house… She’d run in to change the clock from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm while we were distracted (this was before we all had cell phones) and we’d be amazed at how fast time had gone. We would stay up “really late” and then fall asleep, confident in our “coolness”. She actually got to go to sleep at a decent hour without making us all shut up six times in the middle of the night. – NotAnAverageTaunTaun

3. The Disciplinarian Dad

On my 21st birthday, my parents took myself and my housemates out for an early dinner (so as not to interfere with the festivities planned later on) and my dad flipped my world upside down.

When I was 10 and my brother was 7, we took a family trip to the Liberty Science Center, which, for those of you not in the NJ area, is essentially a neat multi-story playhouse full of science-related activities designed for kids. They have an IMAX theater attached that plays interesting documentaries, for a while they had a “touch tunnel” where you would crawl through an extended area in complete darkness, and several demonstrations on different floors with everything from insects to aquatic life to the classic shattering-a-banana-frozen-with-liquid-nitrogen routine. To my parents’ credit, they had me interested in science from a very young age, so this was a real treat for my brother and I, however, since we were still 10 and 7, we couldn’t stand to be stuck in a car for more than an hour without bickering with each other. After fighting almost the entire way there, my dad lays down the law. “If I hear one more word out of either of you, I’m turning the car around.” A deafening silence reigned over the rest of the car ride, until we are literally pulling in to the parking lot, when one of us (I cannot remember who) said something snarky, and my dad, true to his word, turned that car around, and we drove all the way home.

Fast forward to my 21st birthday, that story happened to get brought up, as I tend to use it as an example of how, while my dad was really cool, he was not one to fuck with. My dad then revealed a life-changing secret that only he and my mother had known. They never intended to actually drive all the way home after the long ride. They just wanted us to get the message. However, my dad misinterpreted some of the traffic signs, and ended up back on the Garden State Parkway, which has few and far between opportunities to turn around, so he just took us home. The entire thing was an accident, but they played it off as intentional for the sake of their parental authority. They did take us back the following weekend because you bet your ass we were the most behaved children on the planet for the next few days. – DyLangford

4. The Missing Toy

When I was like 3 or 4, I got a toy telephone car thing that lit up and said things when you pressed the numbers for my birthday. I played with it all day and I didn’t even question the fact that my mom didn’t let me take it out of the box. Three days later, I couldn’t find it anywhere and when I asked my mom she told me that they had to return it to the store because it was infested with ants. Being a kid I didn’t think much of it and I just went back to watching sesame street or whatever.

A few years ago, I told my mom I still remembered that story and she told me what really happened. My family had just come over to the States from Nepal and we barely had any money. My dad was getting a degree at university, working a job, and paying for our bills and his tuition at the same time. Anyway, it turns out that my parents couldn’t actually afford any presents for my birthday, but they wanted me to at least have something to play with, even for a little while. They bought me that toy so I would be happy and then had to return it a few days later. Apparently my mom left the room and cried for a solid hour after I asked her what happened to it when I was a kid. I had to hold back my own tears when they told me about it. – ClockwiseWitness

5. Camping Inside

My mom a few times when my brothers and I were young would “turn” all the lights off in the house. She would tell us to go get our sleeping bags and bring them in the living room while she put a couple of tents together. She then would get candles and put them in a small pile and call it a fire. This little maneuver was called “camping inside”. We weren’t allowed to watch tv or play any video games because we were camping. She read us goosebumps stories and we played flashlight tag. It was always fun.

Cut to when I was first starting out in the world. I was having financial trouble and was consoling in my mom for comfort. She tells my that she’s been down that road and you will always pull through.

I ask her to explain. She says that when we were younger, sometimes she couldn’t afford to pay the power bill and that when it was apparent that it would be shut off, then she knew it was time to go ” indoor camping”. She did that so that none of us would ever worry or think that we wouldn’t be okay. – deadastronautinspace

6. Energiser Mum

When I was 4(?) years old and we didn’t have a car, my mom would pick me up from daycare and then we’d walk home. Whenever I said that I was too tired to walk anymore, my mom would say, “Okay, I’ll give you some energy.” She’d hold my hand and then make a “bzzzz” noise as if sending me energy. Then she’d ask me if I had enough now, I’d say yes, and we’d keep walking. – enuie

7. The Health Nut

From an early age, my mum would tell me fruit and veg were what i knew to be “sweets”.

So up until i was about 7/8 i would be eating things like raisins and cucumber as a treat, thinking i was getting sweets.

I’m not even mad. – Stratocaster89

8. The Missing Nintendos

When i was younger, some of my Super Nintendo games went missing. My Dad had me convinced that I lost them, and he eventually gave me money to buy another game to get my mind off it.

I found out about 15 years later that he actually sold them to help with a few Bills. He had lost his job due to missing excessive days of work spending time with my Mom in the hospital. After losing his job, he also lost the insurance, so he exhausted all of the savings.

As a kid, i never knew we were in any trouble, and he never let me know. He eventually got back on his feet after my Mom got better. – Jiveone

9. Placebo Pills

When I was fourteen I was taken to the doctor because I didn’t pay attention in school. Of course like most kids they put me on some drug like adderall. My mom had to work early in the morning so she would put the pill on my night stand when she left for work. I would wake up, take it, and go on with my day at school. After a few weeks she asked me “Are you having easier time paying attention?” I said yes, and that I was having an easier time doing homework too. She then told me that EVERY day she would dump the contents of the pill in the toilet, and give me an empty pill. – ReHashed622

10. And here’s a funny one…

My parents kept a big-ass sack of pennies that they’d periodically dump on the table in front of me and my sister along with a giant bottle of ketchup. They said the pennies needed to be shined, and we had to coat each penny in ketchup and rub them with a cloth until they were shiny.

It took at least an hour, and my parents would always leave us alone at the kitchen table and go into their bedroom while my sister and I slaved away shining those pennies.

. . . It only recently occurred to me that they were just keeping us occupied so they could partake in giggity time.- henke