15 people share the 'little' childhood lie that ended up backfiring on them.

Lying has tiers. There are the accidental lies that pop out unintended, nodding yes when someone asks if you've seen a movie, agreeing with someone about how nice the weather is even if you hate the sun, things that ultimately hurt no one and won't come back to bite you.

Then on the other extreme, there are the massive life-changing lies, lies about identity, beliefs, and core truths that can radically mess up your life and the lives of those close to you.

But in the middle, there are the little to medium lies that can go either way - then can sit dormant as a passing falsehood, or they can snowball into something much bigger.

In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared the little childhood lies that ended up backfiring on them.

1. From hamletreset:

In a big state-wide exam day in the 3rd grade the teachers said if you finished your test you go to recess for the rest of the day. I filled in random answers so fast and had the best day ever. The test results came back and I was put into special needs classes for 4th and 5th grade before anyone realized I wasn't developmentally disabled.

2. From TellMeRUThatSomebody:

When I was young, was at a daycare for the summer, along with my younger sister and brother. One day, early afternoon, I'm hungry after mom picks us up and ask if we can get McD's. Mom says no, I can wait for dinner. I insisted, 'but I'm hungry...' and then lied and said 'they forgot to feed me.' I claimed I was in the bathroom or something during lunch so I didn't get any.

My mom went ballistic. She called the daycare right then, sitting in the car (early days of cellphones) and gave them hell.

After she hung up - just as I was thinking I won - she declared we were not going to McD's, and I'd just gotten myself grounded for lying, to boot, and how embarrassed she was at having just yelled at staff who had been good to us just because I wanted McD's, and that I owed them an apology the next morning.

Not only did the daycare staff know they gave me lunch, they knew which of the 2 sandwich options I had eaten and exactly how many pieces (quarter-of-a-sandwich sized) I had eaten. Lesson learned, kids: don't lie. The truth will always come out and bite you in the @$$.

3. From MarshmallowFloofs85:

I forgot my keys and got locked out of the house in seventh grade, Usually, I'd just wait on the porch, read and do my homework because locked myself out at least twice a month, but it was a long day and I was tired, so I donkey kicked the door. When my mom and stepdad came home they asked why the door was broken and I said I didn't know, it was like that when I got home.

So they called the police and the police matched my shoe to the shoe print. Luckily I was generally a good kid and wasn't one for lying, so I just got yelled at a bit.

4. From princessedaisy:

Told my kindergarten teacher that my mom was 'going to have a baby.' Not sure why. My mom volunteered at the school so when she came in a few days later, my teacher hugged her all excitedly and went 'congratulations!' She had even gotten my mom a card and everything.

It was really awkward when my mom was super confused and then had to explain to my teacher that she wasn't really pregnant.

5. From HurricaneHugo:

During a field trip in 5th grade, I lied and said I saw a mountain lion on top of the hill. Everybody turned around and said, 'Oh yeah I see it! It's right there! I couldn't see s#$t. To this day I'm not sure if they really did see one or if they were all just f@$king with me.

6. From RandomLurker04:

In fifth grade, I wasn’t doing my homework and I got home from school one day to my mom and mamaw sitting in the living room with serious looks on their face. My mom told me to sit down and said that the school called and told them that I hadn’t been turning in my work. I instantly started crying and said that I had been turning in my work, just not my homework.

They would always ask if I was doing my homework and I’d say yes even though I wasn’t. My mom said, ”Okay, well you better start doing it.” And then proceeded to tell me that the school never called, she just knew I hadn’t been doing my work.

Another time when I was fifteen my mom told me to fold the fitted sheets and I said that I would. I thought she was on the back porch so I just shoved them into the storage container and she was sitting right behind me watching me lol.

7. From theonlyhonez:

When I was 8, I lived down a gravel road that was about 1/2 mile. We had a turnaround loop for the bus so the bus would come down the gravel road to pick me up. The older kids on the bus hated this. In the afternoons they would corner me and tell me it was my fault that their bus ride home was longer than it should be because I should walk out to the main road instead.

Fast forward to a day when we had a substitute driver. I told the driver that the bus takes me down the gravel road to my house. The older kids immediately jumped up and told the driver I was lying. They were all screaming. I being a child started crying. The driver felt bad and took me down the road.

My parents came home later and could tell I was upset. As I was telling the story, they just assumed the driver didn’t take me down the road and I couldn’t help but let them believe it because of all the support I was receiving. I never dreamed they would call the school board. I had to come clean so the substitute driver wouldn’t get fired.

8. From Skr000:

When I was elementary school age, my parents left me home alone while they went to pick up my sister from a school event. I thought it would be funny to prank 911. I called and said “There’s an escaped murderer in my house!” and hung up, laughing at my funny joke. I got an immediate callback. I panicked and answered the phone and hung up. They called back. So I tried to unplug the landline.

Just as the police were pulling up, my parents pulled up too. The police pulled a gun on my dad and made him prove he lived there. I was so scared of getting in trouble, I made up a story that a man knocked on the door and tried to force his way in. I told them it was a white man with a dark beard and he ran off in the cornfield. I don’t think my parents ever knew I made it all up.

The next day, the Oklahoma City bombing happened and I thought it was God punishing people because he was mad at what I did.

9. From revjor:

I once made a Valentine's Day card for my step dad from a secret admirer with a fake kiss that I used my classmate's lips as a model for. I left it on his side of the bed. It did not go well. Turns out he was a habitual cheater.

10. From unlikemike123:

I said I had a girlfriend at a different school, one of the kid's mum was a teacher there and confirmed they didn't exist. Little a#%hole hated me, god it was embarrassing.

11. From geologygurl:

My parents had just gotten me a brand-new phone. A few days after getting it, I took it out of my backpack at school and was horrified to find a huge crack across the screen. I wasn't sure how it happened, but it was probably just from being jostled around in my backpack.

The phone still worked, but I was so scared I was going to get in trouble for cracking the screen. I tried my best to hide it, but my mom noticed it a few days later and demanded to know what happened.

In a moment of panic, I lied and said my teacher had taken away all of our phones before a standardized test (which was actually true, we'd done standardized testing a week or so ago and had to turn in our phones) and when I got it back, it was cracked. I thought she would accept that answer and it would be over with.

But no, my mom freaked out, demanded to know what teacher it was, and then started calling the school to ask to speak to them about it. As she was dialing the number, I broke down and confessed that I actually just found it cracked and that my teacher had nothing to do with it. She was angrier at me for lying than she was about the broken phone screen. Really learned my lesson that day.

12. From RBLibrarian:

I ruined a library book when I was 5 and thought gum worked like Silly Putty. I hid it between my mattress and box spring and lied to my mother and the librarian for about 3 months before I couldn't take the guilt and brought it to my mom while crying. She made me take it to the library and fess up.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized: my mom changed my sheets once a week and had to have seen the hidden book and was just waiting on me to tell the truth. :) Also, I grew up and became a librarian.

13. From EddieRando21:

One afternoon I went to a friend's house from the bus stop instead of going home after school. I was in kindergarten. The friend's mom asked me if my parents knew I was there, and I said 'yeah of course, we planned this since last week.'

My parents had no idea where I was and called the police. Cue the town-wide manhunt until a neighbor that was friends with my parents spotted me and called them. I got my a#$ handed to me for that one.

14. From Clean_Editor_8668:

I was 12. I told my mom I was going to be staying at my Friend Eric's house and got her to give me a ride there and she was going to pick me up the next morning. I actually hung out at Eric's for an hour then went to meet with my girlfriend in the woods behind her house. She was going to tell her parents she felt like camping and set up a tent out there for us to spend the night together.

Well, torrential rainstorm happened soaking through the crappy Walmart tent. She went in her house. I hid in her garage then walked to Erics house the next morning soaked to wait for my Mom

15. From AquaDoctor:

My son threw up in school. We got a call saying he wasn’t feeling good, so I went over to get him. At home, still sick. I took him to the pediatrician because he just looked ill. Sent blood work, swabbed throat, did a decent work up. Nothing showed up, except eventually huge bills because we hadn’t met our deductible. He was much better the next day or so.

A few days later my wife and I were staring at him at dinner and noticed his bangs looked crooked. We looked at each other and started to ask him questions. Waterworks ensued, along with the truth. He was in art class and cut a decent bit of hair off. He said his hair was in his eyes.

About that time the teacher walked by, and to dispose of the evidence he ate his hair. He gagged but got it down. Then puked more later. TL;DR: My son got an expensive medical work up because he ate his own hair to hide the fact that he cut his own hair in class.