• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

When you were a teenager, what’s a dumb thing your parents told you about adult life?

Mondai

Member
When my father used to tutor me in my math , after the first round of hitting me for getting too many math problems wrong , he would always say “Son , at some point you are going to work somewhere where they won’t let you use calculators to help you , you have to know math from the mind”, even then I used to talk back to him and tell him “that’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard” no way a job is going to take away a tool that will make you more efficient at your job (or least I hope thats the case).
 

BlackTron

Member
My dad continues to try and tell me things this mind-numbing all the time and at this point all I can do is facepalm on a daily basis.
 

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
As an eight-year-old, $5 is a lot of money. So I asked my mom what the adult equivalent would be. She said, "$5." Mom was deflecting. Now that I'm about her age when I asked her that, I can say the answer is ~$100
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I was born left handed. For cultural baggage reasons, my parents thought this was wrong, and flipped me to right. So my handwriting sucked for all of my life. They always told me this would hold me back and I'd be a failure because of it. I now type ~95wpm, work a job in data science at six figgies, and it's literally never mattered apart from someone occasionally glancing at my notebook and saying my writing sucks.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
My parents didn't tell me dumb things.

My dad does emphasize things by repeating the same thing twice.
For me, more like 20 times.

But hey it worked. And the advice was actually good. One of the best tips he told me and my siblings was: "Never rent. Always buy if you can afford it as property prices go up over time. If you need to live at home to save money that's ok. But never rent. You are just paying off the landlord's mortgage and you get nothing"

Makes sense as my dad did landlording too!

I dont remember any truly dumbass things my parents told me. Although one that still happens now is they got this hardcore view if any of us dont lock the garage door, someone will steal everything in the middle of the night. A weird thing as we've never had any robberies ever.
 
Last edited:

Fbh

Member
Not necessarily dumb but they always told me the generic "once you are older you'll miss your time in school" stuff.
I'm 31 now and literally the only thing I miss about school is the long summer breaks
 
Work your way up the company ladder, what a farce. Glad I got out of that rat race.

Factually to this day still, changing jobs for most people is the largest pay increase or promotion(s) they'll ever experience. Starting your own business(s) early is a better way IMO.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Not much. But I was working full time in my teenage years and I didn't see my parents that much.
 
‘You’ll understand when you pay taxes!’

Two decades of paying taxes and I refuse to get wound up about every little thing the government does. It’s a terrible way to live!
 

GymWolf

Member
Equations and algebra is gonna be super useful when you are gonna be an adult, you must be good with them.
 

drganon

Member
My mom generally gave good advice, and my dad gave me neither good or bad advice since I haven't seen him since I was 13.
 

UnNamed

Banned
My mom used, and still say to me "don't drop sugar or this will leads into ants", she probably meant sugar attract ants but when I was a kid I believed sugar actually turns into ants. It is something stupid because sugar can't attract to ants if the environment is clean with no ants around.
 
Top Bottom