People list 25 harmful ideas parents shouldn't be teaching their children

A primary role of a parent is molding the future of your child, and there are a lot of potholes to watch out for while raising a kid. Reddit user Savings-Actuator-571 sparked an important discussion on the r/AskReddit forum earlier this month when they presented the community's 37.4 million members with this question: "What harmful ideas are being taught to children?" Thousands of people weighed in, sharing ideas they themselves were taught as kids or have seen others instilling in their younger ones.

Here are 25 of the top answers that are sure to give you some food for thought:

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"Not specifically taught, but moreso an effect of how we teach kids.

Smart and gifted kids in school aren’t challenged enough. Those that do very well, even in a specific subject instead of overall, aren’t taught proper work ethic because they excel already and don’t need to work as hard. Since they aren’t challenged early, they don’t learn how to work when challenged, and they end up doing poorly in school later in life. I know it’s hard to do, but we really need to be aware that we’re setting kids up to fail when we don’t properly challenge them." — Damurph01

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"That they need to have everything lined up by age 16-18 and if they don't, it'll have serious consequences.

Bad grade? No one will ask about it in a couple years. No friends/social life? Get some new ones in college. Don't know what to do with your life yet? Join the club, honey, we got jackets, most of us grownups aren't sure either. The amount of high school kids I've seen beating themselves up, even having full breakdowns over all these things is honestly worrying. 18 is not a deadline. Your life isn't set in its tracks forever by 20. Who on earth is teaching them these things?!" — RubyleafIsHere

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"Abstinence only sex education. Seriously, teens are going to have sex, even when told not to. Teaching them to be safe while doing it is not going to increase the odds of them fu**ing... It is just going to decrease teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections." — CylonsInAPolicebox

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"That saying you’re sorry is showing weakness." — jdith123

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"'Tattling' is bad. That kind of mentality is what leads adults to say nothing when they hear/see domestic violence and various forms of neglect, because its 'not their business.'" — MooshAro

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"Telling kids they have to be nice to everyone. If people are mean to them they won’t fight back with that mindset. They need to know it’s okay to set boundaries without it being an issue. Respect and boundaries are so important for kids. Zero tolerance policies in general are absolutely backwards." — Pure-Contract7101

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"If you don’t play five different sports and make straight a’s in the process you are a failure in life. I’m from NC and I go to a school that has patent that do this so they look good on Facebook, thankfully not my parents." — FoundationUpset1082

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"Overworking to death." — ReaILY22

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