15+ Stories Where Kids Broke All Their Parents’ Upbringing Strategies

Raising kids is a complicated activity. Parents need to manage to keep their authority but at the same time not overstep the mark. The most difficult thing is to not start laughing when a kid figures out everything in their own way and when something turns out completely different from what you expected.

Today, we at Bright Side found an interesting discussion and collected comments from parents where they shared stories about their kids.

• I told my children repeatedly that if I found any more mess/junk on their bedroom floor, I would be donating it to the thrift store. I told them they had 15 minutes to clean it up off the floor. Came back to find everything picked up, except they also went into the kitchen cupboards and put every food they didn’t like in a nice neat pile right in the middle of the floor. © mollymuppet78 / 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

• 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’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

• 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, 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
• 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

• 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

• 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 goes to her money jar, pulls out $2, and hands it to me, and explains that it’s for being a good daddy. © Tsquaredp / 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

• 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 kids movie, and asked to talk to my mom before sending out cops. © Turtelbob / Reddit

• My mother is a teacher and she once taught her class that if a bad guy is chasing/following you in a car, you should turn around and run back the way you came because it will take longer for the car to turn around to catch up and you have a better chance of escaping. A few days later one of her students ran away from school, so she got in her car and drove around looking for him. You can see where this is going... she caught up and called out the window, “[Name], you need to come back to school with me right now!” He looked at her and ran back the way he’d come. © BoldlyGone1 / Reddit

• I taught my kids to stand up for what they believe in. All of a sudden they believed veggies were the devil and bedtimes should be abolished. © Penya23 / 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

• My son’s grandma works at the school my son attends, and he’s supposed to not call her grandma in there. Well, sometimes he forgets and calls her Ms. Grandma. © Mmswhook / Reddit
• My mom would tell me to stay in the car and not open the door for anyone, “not even a cop, because anyone can buy a cop costume.” And I wonder why I have trust issues. © blazelnut / 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 winning 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

Inventive kids always make us smile, don’t they? Which story seemed the funniest to you?