15 people share real life examples of 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.'

We all know the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

But nothing demonstrates its meaning quite like an IRL example.

In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared real-life examples of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

They serve as cautionary tales.

1. From LatrodectusGeometric:

A man named Dr. Spock wrote a handbook for childrearing. It was widely circulated and well received. Many of our parents likely got their childrearing advice from this book.

In it, he recognized that babies throw up a lot and therefore recommended newborns be laid on their stomachs to sleep. Unknowingly, this would result in the accidental smothering deaths of thousands of newborns.

A huge number of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) cases can be laid at his feet.

To this day the back-to-sleep campaign is still fighting to update parents on what we now know: newborns should sleep on their backs until they can reliably roll over for themselves.