12 Kids Who Effortlessly Outsmarted Their Parents’ Rules

Parenting is tricky, as there needs to be a balance between being in charge and not going too far. But making rules and teaching kids lessons is tough because they see things differently, leading to funny and unexpected results. A few parents turned to social media to tell hilarious stories about the times they tried teaching their kids something and it totally backfired.

• When my daughter was young I was trying to teach her the value of money and decided to start giving her an allowance. She had a few tasks to do around the house and afterward, on the weekends before we would go out, I’d give her $5. I explained that because she helped out and did her chores, she had earned money to spend on whatever she wanted. She happily accepted and stashed her money in her room, I thought nothing of it. Later that evening, before I tucked her into bed after reading to her, she went to her money jar, pulled out $2, handed it to me, and explained that it was for being a good daddy. © Tsquaredp / Reddit

• Taught my 4-year-old daughter to always compliment people who insult her. Once, my mother was shopping for a bathing suit. At some point, a woman who was trying on pants said something rude to my mom who was asking my opinion and my daughter caught on that my mother was agitated. She squeezed out from behind me and told the woman, “Your teeth are such a pretty yellow!” © berthejew / Reddit

• I’ve been teaching my kids that life isn’t always fair. Then I was playing tic-tac-toe with my youngest. She covered up the column she wanted to use to win. When I told her that cheating isn’t fair and that I didn’t want to play if she was going to cheat, she reminded me — “Life isn’t fair, momma.” Touché, kiddo. © miseleigh / Reddit

• My kids were begging for a pet. I didn’t want to take care of a pet. I told them if they could keep their rooms clean for 6 months without me telling them, they could get a pet. My youngest child proceeds to clean his room, then moves his clothes and a sleeping bag into the hallway and locks his door so his room can’t get dirty as he sleeps in the hallway. © DONT_PM_ME_BR***TS / Reddit

• I wanted to teach my son the value of money and having a work ethic. Since he kept wanting to buy some things for an online game, I decided it would be a great teaching moment and a win-win opportunity as he was just getting to the age at which I think he should start doing chores around the house. So I created a chore chart and gave each chore a value. We established a schedule and everything. It was working out majestically, every day, without asking, he was doing dishes, cleaning his room, and picking up the dog poop, it was epic. Then one day, I came home and nothing had been done. I asked him, “Hey man, what’s up with the dishes?” He said he’d made so much money over the last few days that he had bought things he needed. It was hard to argue with him. © dgmilo8085 / Reddit

• My parents taught me to call 911 when I saw somebody doing something illegal. I called the cops when I was 5 because a clown stole a cake in a movie. Luckily the 911 operator realized I was young, that my story didn’t make sense because it was a kid’s movie, and asked to talk to my mom before sending out cops. © Turtelbob / Reddit

• When my older son was about 3 or 4 years old, we realized he was starting to act very spoiled and materialistic. We always tried to make him see how lucky he already had it, but he constantly begged us for every toy, piece of candy, and treat he saw anywhere and everywhere.
  Around that time, I came across a great photo spread that involved a photographer traveling around the world and snapping photos of different children with their most prized possessions. There were also photos of children from impoverished nations, usually showing the child with only one old, dirty stuffed animal.
  I thought I was going to accomplish this brilliant parenting move by sitting him down and going through the photos with him. We looked through the photos and talked about each one. We finally got to one with a little boy standing on his cot with his one possession, a well-loved, dingy-looking stuffed monkey. My son looked at it for a long time. I could see his wheels spinning. “Success!” I thought. After a long bit of silence, he finally looked up at me, gave me a sweet smile, and said, “I want that monkey.” © forever_monstro / Reddit

• Told my kids that if they were bad they would get coal in their stockings on Christmas. “What’s coal?” they asked. Well, it is a rock that you can light on fire. They now want coal. © geekworking / Reddit

• Saw a clip on the local news about a toddler saving her mom’s life by calling 911 when she collapsed. Figured it was a good idea to teach my toddler 911. Had 2 cops at my door 5 minutes later. © relevant_tangent / Reddit

• One of my 5-year-old twins was still having occasional accidents because she would get so caught up in playing/doing something else that she just wouldn’t go and would pee her pants. To combat this we would give her a special prize of some variety when she wouldn’t have an accident. This, in turn, caused her twin sister to START having accidents so she could get prizes for not having accidents (even though she was fine on this front beforehand.) We had to rethink our methods. © KyleRichXV / Reddit

• When I was about 2 years old my family was at a game at Angel’s stadium. My mother went to the restroom and left me and my siblings with my dad. While he was busy watching, I wandered off. When they eventually found me, I was halfway around the stadium. A crowd had gathered to watch as a police officer held me out at arm’s length while I screamed, “Call the police, this man is not my daddy” over and over again. My parents had taught me stranger danger but forgot to teach me what police look like. © ghode / Reddit

• When I was a cub scout, my family and I attended a large fundraising dinner. This included a raffle with many prizes, the best of which was a brand-new pool table. I asked my parents if I could use up my allowance money for the next 6 weeks and spend 12 dollars on raffle tickets to try to win the pool table. My parents decided that this would be a good lesson about the dangers of gambling. They agreed to let me use my allowance for the next 6 weeks but warned that I probably wouldn’t win the prize and would not be given any more money for quite a while. I won the pool table. © HighDingyDoo / Reddit

Not every kid story is for laughs though. Some are the opposite and make our hair stand on end. A few children have said eerie things to their family, as if they’re recalling memories from a past life. Their families decided to share these spooky stories online, in search of a logical explanation.