TIL my parents faked a whole earthquake drill when I was 8 and I just found the notebook they planned it in

I was cleaning out their attic last weekend and found a spiral notebook with a timeline for 'Operation Big Shake' - they faked a whole earthquake drill to teach me emergency prep... has anyone else found out their parents staged something that seemed totally real at the time?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas_sanchez16d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that is next level parenting. I’m honestly impressed they kept the notebook instead of burning it. My parents once faked a ‘power outage’ to get me to finish my homework by candlelight. I thought I was just being really productive that night.

phoenix_lewis15d ago

Wait, did your parents follow up with a fake reward system for finishing homework in the dark too? That whole 'power outage' thing is genius though, because it makes you think you're being productive when you're really just doing what they wanted anyway. My parents didn't burn the notebook, which is weird because they're usually super private about stuff like that. Maybe they wanted me to find it someday, like some kind of weird time capsule. I keep thinking about how much work they put into that drill - they even had fake aftershock timings written down. It's kind of sweet in a creepy way, like they really cared about me being prepared but didn't want me to stress out about real earthquakes.

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charles64015d ago

Dude, that fake reward system with the homework in the dark is wild. My old man would set up "night missions" where we had to read by flashlight and he'd give us a quarter for every page. But the aftershock timings written down is some serious commitment. It's creepy but also kind of sweet they put that much thought into it, you know? Makes me wonder what other stuff they had planned that we never found out about.