Live a wild and daring life!

[estelle]

Comments

[static_abyss]

I heard the one about seeds making plants grow inside you. From my mom because my sister used to eat uncooked beans and my mom wanted her to stop. But I think we stopped believing it pretty quick because my mom eats pomegranate seeds and we never saw a pomegranate tree grow from her.

[estelle]

I understand that she didn't want her to eat raw beans but why did she not give the real reason?
Other kids told me this, so it is hard to understand that an adult would want to scare a kid that way, knowing full well it is false.

[static_abyss]

I don't know either. To me it seemed ways much simpler to just tell kids the truth. They understand for the most part. And the weirder thing is when my mom took up babysitting she was frank and truthful with the kids she raised, so if she had just applied some of that to us, things would have been so much easier.

[halfshellvenus]

Oh, no-- your mother _planted_ that superstition in your sister? Ack. It'll usually come around on its own, sometimes as a random rumor and sometimes because kids like your sister can auto-generate ideas like that on their own!

Though yes, they usually don't last beyond when the child notices proof to the contrary. ;)

[zimtkeks]

I was told a lot of these things, but I didn't believe them.
I did believe that mermaids were real until about 5th grade.

[estelle]

I loved, loved, loved mermaids. I would play mermaid for hours when we were at a pool.

[banana_galaxy]

I'd never heard the one about licking the yogurt lid. I do that all the time!

[estelle]

Keep doing it. It's perfectly safe. But I gotta admit I researched when my then boyfriend looked at me absolutely horrified for doing that.

[rayaso]

I hadn't heard any of these before, but I enjoyed reading them very much. I don't recall any from my childhood, except the "step on a crack and break your mother's back" variety.

[estelle]

Yeah, I omitted all the "it brings bad luck" ones on purpose. I wanted to focus on the ones that have a supposedly direct physical reaction in your own body. Like fan death. Because when I first read it I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that anybody would believe that. How does the air supposedly have less oxygen just because it is moved?

But then I thought, wait a minute... maybe it is not that ridiculous after all, just a different culture.

[alycewilson]

I'd never heard of some of these. Fascinating!

[estelle]

Thanks!